(Host) The Republican candidate for auditor, Bruce Hyde, says incumbent Democratic Auditor Elizabeth Ready has inappropriately politicized some of the operations of her department. It’s a charge that Ready strongly denies.
Speaking last night on VPR’s Switchboard program, Hyde said Ready’s confrontational approach investigating problems at the Vermont Tax Department and the State Treasurer’s Office did not help resolve these situations:
(Hyde) “It didn’t do a whole lot of good to just jump up on a soap box and rant and rave about the problems in the Tax Department with not depositing things timely, and not getting refund checks out, letters that were incorrect, and on and on and on.”
(Host) Ready said her criticisms of State Treasurer Jim Douglas were not political but reflected serious concerns that she felt needed to be addressed:
(Ready) “It’s a black and white issue. What we’re talking about here is $1.2 billion running through the vendor account. What we’re talking about here are 14 acts of fraud and theft against that account during a period when those particular accounts went unreconciled for up to 10 months. It doesn’t matter who is holding the office. Bottom line is, we’re lucky that’s the only issue that we had with small amounts of problems.”
(Host) Both candidates agreed that additional steps need to be taken to improve the state’s Internet capabilities in order to help attract new businesses to Vermont.