Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement yesterday, following Auditor Suzanne Bump’s decision to decline the Senate Republican Caucus’ request for an audit of the Patrick Administration’s job-counting methodology. The Caucus has renewed its request for an audit, following new information released this week by the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute revising the state’s Gross Domestic Product for 2011 downward from 2.9 percent to 1.8 percent, a change that was prompted by the way job growth is calculated at the state level.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the Patrick Administration’s pronouncements on the Commonwealth’s economic recovery and jobs growth should be met with healthy skepticism and serious study, given the wide disparity in what the Administration has been saying on these topics and what we have been hearing from a growing number of state and federal sources.
The Senate Republican Caucus is extremely disappointed in the State Auditor’s decision not to audit the faulty job-counting methodology employed by the Patrick Administration. We are trying to recover from one of the worst economic recessions in our nation’s history, yet we have a Governor who is providing us with seemingly inaccurate information and an auditor who refuses to review this serious problem, which I would argue has wide-ranging implications for our long-term ability to emerge successfully from the recession.
The Senate Republican Caucus has not given up on this battle, and we have renewed our request for an audit, which we urge the Auditor to carry out expeditiously. In the meantime, we will continue to vigorously promote the jobs creation package filed by the Senate and House Republicans as an effective means of positioning the state for future growth and getting Massachusetts residents back to work.”
(A copy of Auditor Suzanne Bump’s response letter to the Senate Republican Caucus and the Caucus’ follow-up letter are both attached below.)
Senate GOP Caucus Audit Request
