How Much Is This Lottery Audit Costing Our Kids Now?

I don’t have a problem with the state Auditor conducting audits. It’s kind of in the job title.

To be fair I don’t even have a problem with the lottery audit that Mary Taylor announced back in November even though I thought then, and I still think now, that it was and still is politically motivated.

But when I saw today that Governor Strickland asked why the lottery audit is taking so long I was reminded of what Mary Taylor, now John Kasich’s running mate for Governor, said back when she announced the audit:

1. It would cost $118,000 – the total cost of which would be paid by the lottery commission.

and…

2. It would be done by March.

So here we are almost in July and the audit still isn’t finished? That’s nearly twice as long as originally estimated. And I’m wondering: is it going to cost twice as much as originally expected? Are we now spending $240K of the lottery commission’s money – money that was supposed to go for our kids’ education – to conduct a politically-motivated audit?

Again, I’m not saying this audit shouldn’t have happened.

But Kasich and Taylor’s entire campaign is based on promises to cut government spending. And right now it looks like her office is spending at least twice as much as necessary to achieve… what again?

The obvious question is: Who’s auditing the auditor?