Management and Budget director Ira Mills has taken issue with remarks made by legislative post auditor Campbell Malone before a June 26 luncheon meeting of the League of Women Voters, according to a release circulated by Government House Wednesday.
Mills was a target of Malone's comments complaining of the Legislature's inability to get reliable financial figures from the administration and attacking the Five-Year Operating and Strategic Financial Plan presented by the governor's Economic Recovery Task Force.
At the LWV meeting on St. Thomas, Malone accused the Office of Management and Budget of providing figures that were "bogus and unrealistic."
In a letter to Malone made public Wednesday, Mills countered that "the tirade of abuse and accusations contained in your presentation . . . against the hard-working employees of OMB did a disservice to them and did nothing to enhance the cooperation which has existed between OMB and Post Audit for years."
Mills cited what he termed several "inaccuracies" made by Malone. He noted that the 23rd Legislature passed a budget of $451 million, which was $20 million higher than the $432 version prepared by OMB.
Responding to Malone's charge that OMB overstated revenues by $160 million, Mills said revenue projections are based on the best historical data available. Even the "most sophisticated models of the federal government have proven fallible," he wrote.
Management and Budget will continue to work toward the government's financial recovery, Mills wrote. He told Malone he hoped that "despite your self-promoting comments, you will convince the 23rd Legislature to support the revenue-enhancing measures . . . in the Fiscal Year 2001 budget package."
The 2001 budget, due before the Legislature by law at the end of May, was delayed until the end of June, then postponed again last week. Government House has not announced a new date for delivering it to the lawmakers.
Malone was not available for comment Wednesday evening.