State Auditor reviews Commerce's fee use

The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) held a public hearing this morning to discuss the State Auditor's performance audit of the Department of Commerce's use of fees. The performance audit found: Commerce does not follow best practices to identify programs that could charge fees, which could provide the state with additional revenue; Some user fees are not established in accordance with state law and others are not accounted for or used in accordance with state law; Commerce could reduce general fund spending by between $2.2 million and $2.4 million or more over five years if fees were charged for four programs. Among the audit recommendations was the need for Commerce to use best practices identified by the U.S. Government Accountability Office to determine which government activities should be funded with user fees . . . READ MORE