Mike Foley

I imagine that most readers are expecting me to write this week about the upcoming special session of the State Legislature. The Governor has not yet formally called for a special session of the Legislature and his plan for property tax relief remains under construction. When news becomes available, about a special session or about his plan for property tax relief, I will be sure to let the readership know.

I am committed to keeping the folks of Western Nebraska informed about state news. When it comes to state news, Western Nebraska is a kind of news desert. Many readers of my weekly column seldom ever receive news from the eastern part of the state. By the time folks living in the Panhandle receive news from Lincoln it has oftentimes already become history and is no longer even considered news.

Today I would like to inform you about the recent outstanding work of our State Auditor, Mike Foley. The job of the State Auditor is to analyze the financial records of our state agencies and to hold them accountable for how they spend taxpayers' dollars. Mike Foley is the right man for this position. I have known Mike Foley for nearly 25 years. I first met him when he was a State Senator. He and my son, Philip, shared an office together at the State Capitol in Lincoln for two years.

Foley did an excellent job representing his district in Lincoln as well as the people of Nebraska when he served as a State Senator. For the first six years of my tenure as a State Senator, Foley served as the Lieutenant Governor of the State, where he presided over the State Legislature. Following his eight-year service as the Lieutenant Governor, he was elected to the office of State Auditor of Public Accounts in 2022. Foley may be the best State Auditor that Nebraska has ever seen!

Two years ago, Gov. Pillen had recommended that the State Legislature reduce the State Auditor's budget by $250,000. The State Legislature ultimately decided against it, and that decision has proved to be one of the wisest decisions that the State Legislature has ever made. I say this, because Foley has recovered many times more than the Governor's proposed budget cut of $250,000. Foley is a budget hawk who continuously uncovers how state agencies are misappropriating and abusing our state's tax dollars, and today I would like to share a couple of examples of how he did this last week.

In a press release last Tuesday Foley identified millions of dollars which were improperly paid out by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to child care providers through the NFOCUS Aid Payments Program. While participating in the childcare subsidy program, Foley said, "many of those providers took full advantage of the agency's lax oversight and successfully bilked DHHS out of payments far in excess of those to which they were entitled." Foley uncovered approximately $12.8 million in fraudulent billings that were paid out by DHHS over a nine-month period between 2023 and 2024.

Then, on Thursday of last week, Foley released another report showing how the Nebraska Board of Parole has been using state vehicles for personal use. The report identified 12 employees of the Nebraska Board of Parole who used state vehicles for a combined total of 291 unapproved trips. Foley uncovered the abuse of state vehicles by analyzing GPS data that the Nebraska Board of Parole allegedly never received. One staff member in particular used a state vehicle to travel 200 miles to attend a retirement party. Using a state vehicle for personal use is classified as a misdemeanor under Nebraska State law.

Cutting out fraudulent and wasteful spending is important. The work of the State Auditor is necessary to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not being wasted. There remains a lot more work that needs to be done at the state level to weed out fraudulent and wasteful spending, but please know that we have a good man at the helm who is doing this work on behalf of the Nebraska taxpayers. Nebraska still has a serious tax problem, which the Governor and State Senators can no longer ignore. Whatever becomes the plan, it cannot be a simple tax shift; instead, it must reduce the overall tax burden that Nebraskans face.