Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to auditors: Follow the rules? Who, me?

Based on the findings of a new audit, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon hasn’t even tried to clean up accounting problems in his office.

His behavior helps explain why the Democratic governor is so at odds with his Republican legislature. He thinks he can do whatever he wants.

The audit released Wednesday, as required by state law, repeated the major criticism of a 2012 audit: Nixon raids the budgets of other state agencies to pay for employees and travel expenses incurred by his office.

Over a three-year period, Nixon took about $948,000 from agencies like the Department of Economic Development to pay expenses for his office and the governor’s mansion, the audit states.

The General Assembly in 2012 began inserting language into its budget bills prohibiting most state agencies from paying staff and travel costs for the governor’s office.

Nixon has ignored the restrictions. He also pushed some of his expenses into the next fiscal year.

“As a result,” the audit says, “the Governor’s office has significantly under reported the true costs of operating the office.”

Nixon’s response in the audit reeks of arrogance.

“The office accounts for its operational costs in a manner that properly reflects the nature of the work it performs,” it said.

Other governors also raided agency funds to supplement office expenses, but Nixon has flagrantly expanded the practice. Short of legal action brought by the state attorney general — an unlikely prospect — there appears to be no way to coerce him into compliance.

An odd twist: The latest audit was announced by the office headed by John Watson, who until December was Nixon’s chief of staff. Nixon tapped Watson to fill in after the death of state Auditor Tom Schweich. So Watson had a key role in the governor’s office when it was doing the things criticized in the audit.

Not surprisingly, Watson recused himself from participating in the latest report.

Deputy Auditor Harry Otto supervised the audit. It rated Nixon’s office as “fair,” the second lowest grade.

This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to auditors: Follow the rules? Who, me?."