Has John Martin (D-Aroostook) finally axed the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability?

Senator Martin offered an amendment to the budget late last night (Thursday) that would essentially eliminate OPEGA and transfer a few of the staff and some resources to another office in the Legislature. The new model presented by Senator Martin is based on the old Audit Committee that existed in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The savings amount to about one million dollars.

There was an earlier attempt in State and Local Government Committee to “reorganize” OPEGA. That idea was unanimously rejected by the Committee, which sent a letter to leadership that included the following statement, “…the Committee does not favor any diminishment of the missions, goals and independence of OPEGA or other non-partisan office. We also encourage the Council to examine partisan offices for opportunities for savings.”

The folks at OPEGA have been turning out reports and identifying waste and fraud, and by most accounts have been viewed very favorably. Perhaps they have done too good a job in identifying problems in State Government, which would explain Senator Martin’s eagerness to be rid of it. This will be a decent battle as far as a floor fights go, and I would not be surprised if the folks at OPEGA remain fully funded in the next budget.

The amendment is now in the democrat’s version of the budget bill, and will go to the floor next week for a full vote.