Court Opinion

ID: 9793435
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:47:27.89553+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:05:00.029836
License: Public Domain

Hill, J.
(dissenting)—I dissent. The constitution of the state of Washington says “The auditor shall be the auditor of public accounts.” Art. Ill, § 20.
The majority see in the additional words “and shall have such powers and perform such duties in connection therewith as may be prescribed by law,” the authority of the legislature to strip the office of its authority over public accounts.
In my view, those words are not intended to authorize the subtraction by the legislature of anything from the primary duty indicated, i.e., “The auditor shall be the auditor of public accounts,” but rather to enable the legislature to amplify his powers and duties in connection with that primary duty.
Historically, the purpose of an independent auditor was to be able to challenge the legality of the expenditure of funds by the various agencies, branches, and divisions of state government before the public funds had gone down the drain.
The state auditor has, through the years, refused to issue vouchers where he questioned the propriety of the use being made of public funds.
Sometimes we have held that he was mistaken and directed the issuance of certain vouchers: State ex rel. Oregon State Highway Comm. v. Yelle (1955), 47 Wn. (2d) 804, 289 P. (2d) 1027; State ex rel. State Employees’ Retirement Board v. Yelle (1948), 31 Wn. (2d) 87, 195 P. (2d) 646, 201 P. (2d) 172; State ex rel. Van Orsdel v. Yelle, (1942), 15 Wn. (2d) 320, 130 P. (2d) 889; State ex rel. Washington Toll Bridge Authority v. Yelle (1938), 195 Wash. 636, 82 P. (2d) 120; and, sometimes, we have held that he was *306right and that the expenditure could not lawfully be made: State ex rel. Washington State Building Financing Authority v. Yelle (1955), 47 Wn. (2d) 705, 289 P. (2d) 355; State ex rel. Eastvold v. Yelle (1955), 46 Wn. (2d) 166, 279 P. (2d) 645; State ex rel. Davis v. Clausen (1931), 160 Wash. 618, 295 Pac. 751; State ex rel. Banker v. Clausen (1927), 142 Wash. 450, 253 Pac. 805.
I concede, of course, that the legislature can, if it so desires, abolish the office of state auditor; but until it does, or until the constitutional statement of his duties is amended, the auditor should remain the “auditor of public accounts.”
By the provisions of Laws of 1959, chapter 328, the state auditor ceases to be the “auditor of public accounts,” and to that extent I would hold the act to be unconstitutional.
Mallery and Foster, JJ., concur with Hill, J.
March 16, 1960. Petition for rehearing denied.