The Iowa Senate has unanimously voted to create a task force to study the distribution of state court fines and recommend changes to the system.
The move comes after computer programming errors in the Iowa Judicial Branch misdirected $27.5 million over a five year period. The directors of six state agencies as well as city and county officials and groups that were shorted funds would serve on the review panel.
Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, wished them luck. “It’s an important group that we’re bringing together to really try and simplify and streamline a very complex system that many groups depend on for accuracy,” she said.
The bill names the governor and three other Republican elected officials as panel members. The Supreme Court’s chief justice and the state auditor are not on the list. Republican Senator Mike Bousselot of Ankeny made it clear that’s intended as a rebuke to State Auditor Rob Sand, a Democrat. Bousselot has accused Sand of failing to immediately act when first notified about the funding errors.
“What is the mission of our auditor’s office? To ensure that government officials use taxpayer money for the intended purpose?” Bousselot asked during Senate debate. “Well, I hate to tell you, but he failed at that mission in every single way on court debt.”
Sand has said his office became aware of the issue in October 2022, but it could not be made public until an audit of the Judicial Branch was completed and released.
“The Reynolds Administration created this problem by repeatedly changing these laws, agreed to the Judicial Branch’s plan to fix the mess their changes made, and has the sole power to recycle misplaced funds to any program they thought was underfunded.” said Sonya Heitshusen, a spokesperson for Sand.
Other state officials disclosed the computer errors last October and the funding distribution has been corrected, but misappropriations of the past have not been addressed.