- Utah State Auditor Tina Cannon argues that budget cuts will hinder her office's ability to do its job.
- Budget reductions may delay annual comprehensive financial report due to staff limitations.
- Cannon emphasizes need for hiring better, highly compensated accounting staff to prevent fraud.
This year, the Legislature is looking to apply a 5% funding cut across all state agencies; this includes the Office of the Utah State Auditor.
On Friday morning during a General Government Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, State Auditor Tina Cannon explained why this funding cut would hurt her office and the work they do.
She says that these cuts would prevent her office from doing its job to the best of its ability, which includes monitoring the Legislature’s funds.
After the hearing, Cannon told the Deseret News she thinks the Legislature should better prioritize how it spends the state’s money.
“My plea would be, be smart about how you cut and oversight should be a priority of any government. And to cut indiscriminately across agencies, especially those that require expertise in the type of employment that we offer, it’s dangerous,” Cannon said.
Cannon said she believes the “swag” purchased for the new North Capitol Building costs the same as what they’re trying to cut from her budget.
“Maybe we stop funding swag and imported Italian marble,” Cannon said, referring to the stone used for the new building.
During Senate media availability on Friday, Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, who serves as the Senate executive appropriations chair, said that the budget shouldn’t be questioned until the session is over, because it isn’t finalized yet.
“This is a work in progress,” Stevenson said.
He said almost every agency that has presented about their budget so far has made the same complaint that the cuts prevent them from fully completing their jobs.
How these funding cuts would impact the state auditor’s office
The auditor warned the cuts would prevent her office from completing its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report on time, because the agency could no longer pay employees for the overtime necessary to complete the report.
“We don’t have the staff to not have to work overtime at this point. So if we cut the overtime, that means that report is late,” Cannon said.
She also argued that her office continues to have more to do each year and is already underfunded.
Cannon said her office has dealt with an 18% increase in the number of reports it must do each year. In the 2025 fiscal year, the office completed 938 more reports than in the 2024 fiscal year.
Cannon added that because of the complexity of the work and the amount of money the office oversees, “we should be hiring qualified auditors, not the cheapest.”
She said as her office continues to take on more cases and uncover more fraud and mismanagement of funds, it needs better staff, not more staff. She added that having qualified accounting staff is important, because when those doing the accounting aren’t qualified, “that’s where we see fraud.”
During Friday’s media availability, Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, talked about his experience chairing appropriations committees. He said that having state agencies do budget presentations allows the Legislature to see what matters to each agency and what their priorities are.
“I appreciate those that are taking it serious, because as a lawmaker, if they don’t go through this exercise and take it seriously, it’s hard to know what their real priorities are,” McKell said.
Tina Cannon’s concerns with the legislative auditors
During a meeting last week with the Deseret News, Cannon expressed her concerns about the independence of the legislative auditor.
“I worry about the independence of a legislative auditor looking at a legislative program. The most important part of an auditor is that independence: who controls what, what I can look at, what I can say,” Cannon said.
She added that when these legislative auditors look at legislative programs, there is a lack of independence because their salaries are controlled by the Legislature.
“I would caution you any report that’s coming out from an auditor, in any situation you should be checking for the independence of the auditor,” Cannon said.
In last week’s meeting with the Deseret News, Cannon said that the legislative auditors are able to pay their auditors 30% to 50% higher than the auditors in her office are paid. She added that those auditors also require lower certification than the ones in her office.
What does the state auditor do?
The Office of the Utah State Auditor serves as the independent auditor of the state’s public accounts. It oversees how public funds are reported and managed across the state government and its political subdivisions.
“Wherever public money is entrusted, the auditor’s authority follows,” reads the office’s annual report.
There are more than 1,800 state departments, agencies, public corporations, entities, local governments and special districts whose funds the auditor’s office oversees. The auditor’s office also looks into any fraud or mismanagement of funds.
