Latest / The Fiscal Policy Podcast with Fexingo: Government Budgets, Stimulus, and Public Spending
How One Small County Got Its Budget Audited by Citizens
When officials in rural Douglas County, Oregon, faced a $2 million shortfall in 2023, they did something unusual: they opened the books to a citizen audit committee. This episode follows how a group of retired accountants, a school teacher, and a small-business owner spent six months digging into property tax assessments, software contracts, and a mysterious line item labeled "miscellaneous professional services." They found $340,000 in annual savings on software nobody used, $78,000 in double-paid vendor invoices, and a property tax error that had been costing homeowners an extra $120,000 a…
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