Vaudt won't run for governor in 2010

DES MOINES – State Auditor David Vaudt said Monday he will not be a candidate seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2010.

“It was a very difficult decision,” Vaudt told reporters in taking his name out of consideration for governor next year while announcing plans to seek re-election to a third term as state auditor.

The Clive Republican made the announcement while delivering a pessimistic assessment of the Legislature's fiscal 2010 budget plan which he said relies too heavily on one-time money to fund ongoing expenses.

Vaudt worried the state budget will face a potential gap of $1 billion between spending and revenues in fiscal 2011, setting up the possibility of a large tax increase, deep spending cuts or a combination of the two.

“We need to stop the nonsense of taking the easy road rather than the best road,” Vaudt said.

The auditor said he gave a gubernatorial bid serious consideration at the urging of many Iowans. But he said he decided against it in part because such a political bid would give Democrats who control the Legislature and governor's office a premise by which to discredit his negative assessment of state government's current fiscal situation and to question his motives at a time when Iowans need reliable budgetary information.

Vaudt said he is “very discouraged” by short-sighted budgeting practices that continue to create “deep, deep problems” and push tough decisions into the future about bringing state spending in line with available revenues.

“I think we need to stop digging the hole deeper and start turning things around,” he said.

Despite all the talk of spending cuts that actually did hit some state agencies hard, Vaudt said the Democrat-controlled Legislature actually ended up increasing state spending by more than 1 percent for next fiscal year with the help of $529 million in federal economic stimulus funds and other one-time state sources.

The auditor also criticized a $765 million bonding plan as creating needless costs to taxpayers for infrastructure projects that could have been funded by money earmarked for rebuilding but instead was diverted to help cover general fund expenses.

“With the mismatch that we have right now and the spending gap we have looking into (fiscal) 2011, we're either going to see a large increase in taxes and fees or a dramatic decrease in services provided,” he said.

“It's more likely we're going to see a combination of the two; we're going to have an instance where you're going to pay more and get less because somehow we've got to bring it all into balance and we can only kick that can down the road so far,” Vaudt added.

The auditor said he plans to travel Iowa extensively giving presentations on his budget analysis and he has created a five-minute video that can be viewed at YouTube.com (keyword “iowastateauditor”) which details his various concerns.

Republican Party of Iowa chairman Matt Strawn welcomed Vaudt's decision to seek re-election in 2010, calling the announcement “great news for Iowa taxpayers.”

“Auditor Vaudt is an independent and principled watchdog for all taxpayers,” Strawn said in a statement. “Dave is an important, but too often lonely, voice for fiscal responsibility in Des Moines, and Republicans will work tirelessly to ensure that voice remains at the Capitol for another four years.”