By Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison

 

At the request of a top lawmaker, Attorney General Lynn Fitch opined that state Auditor Shad White lacked the authority to hire a consultant for $2 million to look for waste and fat in state government.

Fitch’s opinion said White has the authority to conduct “financial audits only,” but does not have authority to conduct “managerial studies” without a written request from the governor or the Legislature.

A spokesman for the auditor said on Wednesday that the office did have legal authority to commission the study — and added Fitch’s legal opinion is likely the result of the consultant finding that Fitch and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the state Senate, took the state plane on a trip to an out-of-state college baseball game.

This trip was not mentioned in the consultant’s report White released to the media and public in October, although White recommended getting rid of the state airplane. White previously denied a records request from Mississippi Today for any documents other than the 59-page report he made public. The auditor’s spokesman did not specify on Wednesday what baseball game he was referencing.

In a statement, Hosemann said ““The state attorney general issued an opinion yesterday which clearly states the state auditor was unauthorized to spend $2 million of taxpayer funds. The state laws on expenditures of taxpayer funds apply equally to the state auditor, and the funds should be returned to the taxpayers.”

Fitch Chief of Staff Michelle Williams sent a statement in response to White’s office.

“Supporting Mississippi student-athletes representing Mississippi in the College World Series is what public officials representing Mississippians should do,” Williams said. “Spending $2 million on a report without lawful authority to spend is not.”

Lawmakers have been questioning whether White’s study on waste was, itself, wasteful spending. Some have noted the result was mostly a rehash, amalgam of long-discussed, never enacted ideas to cut government spending that could have been cobbled together after spending a day or two on Google, going through Mississippi press clippings and perusing old legislative watchdog reports and bills.

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Lawmakers and Mississippi politicos have questioned whether White’s report, released with fanfare at a press conference and subsequent media circuit, was more a campaign effort for his stated 2027 gubernatorial aspirations.

White, who has compared his efficiency study to President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts at cutting federal waste, has written off any questions of his consultant study as deep state pushback.

State Sen. John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, chair of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget for White’s office, requested the attorney general opinion on White’s study. Polk noted the $2 million White spent never came up when setting his budget for the year, which is “quite unusual.” He said White has some autonomy on “escalating” his budget, but he questions whether this large increase met legal criteria.

“I’m concerned he has broken the law, and that is not a good thing for a state auditor,” Polk told Mississippi Today on Wednesday.

Polk noted the AG’s opinion doesn’t carry the weight of law, and the opinion itself notes such opinions “are prospective determinations on matters of state law only and can neither sanction nor invalidate past actions.”

“What I want to focus on is how going forward we control things like this, prevent them from happening,” Polk said. He said he wants lawmakers to look further into White’s consultant contract, how the auditor chose the Boston firm and other issues.

Polk said he and other lawmakers have noted the study produced “nothing new … the same old, same old” in suggestions for government efficiency.

“It’s things we’ve tried, or talked about, or in some cases are already doing,” Polk said. “… The (consultants’) contract says they would talk with agency heads as part of the study. I haven’t found an agency head yet that says they talked with them. That bothers me.”

Jacob Walters, a spokesman for White, said Hosemann “probably” had Polk request the attorney general’s opinion.

Walters speculated Hosemann was upset that White’s study “uncovered” that he and AG Fitch “took a taxpayer-funded trip” on the state airplane to travel to an out-of-state college baseball game.

“This is why Auditor White called to eliminate the state airplane in Project Momentum,” said Walters, alluding to the name White gave the Boston consulting group study.

He said many Mississippi politicians, like those in Washington, “dislike Auditor White’s willingness to upset the applecart on behalf of taxpayers.”

“Your days of wasting our money are over,” Walters said.

Whether or not White commissioned the study to raise his profile for a potential run for governor, the issue is firmly mired in 2027 politics. White and Fitch are considered likely candidates for the office, as is Hosemann, who oversees the Senate and for whom Polk is a top lieutenant. Any battle over White’s budget or spending the $2 million in the upcoming legislative session is likely to be politically charged.

White has been politically sparring with Hosemann and Fitch, and the internecine fight among Republicans with gubernatorial aspirations is heating up as the Jan. 7 start of the 2025 legislative session draws near.

Other politicians, including the current chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, have accused White of grandstanding for political gain, and questioned his writing a book about the ongoing Mississippi welfare fraud scandal he helped investigate.

White’s scrutinized report said Mississippi could sell the state’s airplane, make officials use commercial or charter flights, and save more than $1 million a year. The existence of the state airplane and intense scrutiny of travel on it by governors and others have been debated off and on for decades. Former Gov. Phil Bryant, who appointed White to the auditor’s office, pitched selling one of the state’s planes when it had two a major political platform and vowed to take commercial flights for state-related travel.

White’s consultant report includes recommendations such as reducing government officials’ travel spending. This was a hot topic for several years after a 2013 investigation by the Clarion-Ledger showed that even during lean budget years, government officials still spent tens of millions of dollars on travel, domestic and abroad, and had a massive fleet of government vehicles with dubious need for them. The Legislature clamped down on travel and agencies enacted fleet rules and promoted mileage reimbursement for personal vehicles. But according to White’s report, travel spending has been growing and again needs a major haircut.

The report also found that, compared to other states, Mississippi government is spending too much on office space and insurance for state buildings and leased property, and on advertising and public relations for state agencies — again, issues that have been pointed out multiple times over the last couple of decades by lawmakers, journalists and government watchdog reports.

White’s report recommends the state consolidate and reform its purchasing and look for better deals when it buys goods and services. That should sound familiar: Two lawmakers in particular, Sen. Polk and Rep. Jerry Turner, led a serious crusade on purchasing reform for several years and managed to push through some meaningful changes. But many of those have been undone or are now ignored.