McGill hopes to continue Foley's efforts to eliminate government waste

Nebraska state Sen. Amanda McGill-term limited at 34-is ready to bring energy and enthusiasm to the state auditor's office.

At the time McGill took office to represent northeast Lincoln eight years ago, she was the youngest woman to work in the Nebraska legislature in 25 years.

"Since I'm term limited, I was looking at ways to further continue efforts of reform and digging into government mismanagement and waste and felt that the state auditor's office was the best way to do that," McGill said during a campaign stop in Sidney.

McGill praised the current auditor Mike Foley's efforts to uncover waste in Nebraska government and promised to continue his efforts. Foley is one of many running for Nebraska governor.

"It creates an opportunity to try to fill his shoes and to continue his efforts to go program by program and identify problems so that the legislature and governor can fix them," McGill said.

She describes herself as a hard worker who wants to protect Nebraskans' tax dollars.

If elected, McGill would work to ensure that her office's financial audits were completed in conjunction with the legislature's performance audits.

"Right now, they're doing their audits separately," she said. "The legislature, though can choose to partner with the auditor to do a comprehensive audit."

McGill promised to use the relationships she built in the legislature to work together on these audits. The auditor can identify the problems, but she must to rely on the legislature and governor to decide how to fix these issues.

Although McGill will work to discover mismanagement of government funds, she acknowledged that misuse of government money isn't always intentional.

"Sometimes money isn't managed right and that doesn't mean somebody's trying to do something wrong," McGill said.

The auditor's office should work with state employees so these individuals understand why certain procedures and best practices are important, so everyone is held accountable.

While in the legislature McGill worked to uncover problems at Health and Human Services, including issues involving the privatization of child welfare reform.

McGill passed bills in an attempt to raise awareness and cut down on human trafficking in the state. Those who were sexual abused as children as well as runaways are at high risk for human trafficking, she said.

Other issues important to McGill include increasing access to mental health services in rural areas. There are only a few child psychologists and psychiatrists in areas outside Omaha and Lincoln.

"We need to do a much better job of getting professionals all over the state," McGill said.

Last year McGill passed a pilot program in the legislature to integrate mental health services into physical healthcare clinics.

McGill knows that 51 percent of Nebraska's prison population is non-violent.

"So there need to be better community services that can provide reform to people without necessarily having to spend time in jail where they're around hardened, violent criminals and their behavior gets even worse," she said.

Too many people come to prisons from rural areas where they don't have access to diversionary services, McGill said.

The legislature put money in the state's budget this year to improve those services in rural areas and to grow them in urban areas. In the meantime the legislature is considering placing some of the male prison population in county jails, although this is only a short term solution.

The legislature will decide next year if building a new prison is the right answer or if the state will move forward with diversionary programs to keep non-violent offenders out of jail.

"My hope is we don't have to build another prison," McGill said. "I think that is more costly when there are evidence-based programs that have worked in other states, including Texas, that have been able to lower their prison population."

Even as a democratic woman in a conservative state, McGill still likes her chances.

"I like being the underdog, because I'm a fighter," she said.

McGill touted her record of working across party lines.

"If you look at my record, I've passed a lot of bills," she said. "It's increased each year. So my effectiveness has gotten stronger every year and I have a lot of colleagues who are very supportive."

McGill feels she's a different type of candidate.

"And it's not just that I'm a woman," she said. "I'm young and I have energy and I have passion and integrity."

McGill feels that she's proven her abilities during her time in the legislature and would like the rest of the state to know who she is. She promises to spend time outside Lincoln and Omaha if elected as state auditor.

"Nebraskans ultimately, they vote for the person," she said. "I mean we've seen that in elections for decades."

McGill knows that Nebraskans will vote for the person who proves they're the best for the job and she believes she's just that.

The auditor's hotline for citizens or whistleblowers who work for the government to report government mismanagement will continue under McGill's watch. It's the auditor's job to dig into concerns in any department, no matter what special interests might be involved and make sure things are transparent, she added. If elected, McGill promised to ferret out cases of embezzlement and government waste.

"It's critical to have someone in this office who will be non-partisan, who is professional and have the integrity to continue to push to find answers or find where there are problems so that we can fix the holes and then spend the money more wisely," McGill said.