Missouri auditor

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick says he'll only investigate the state's charter schools — which are all in Kansas City or St. Louis — if formal complaints show “specific problems. Union leaders sent a letter to the auditor's office in August.

The Missouri Auditor's office no longer needs consent from governing boards or a petition drive to launch an audit if an initial investigation shows “improper government activity” — including fraud, waste of resources or violations of law.

Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick's office said the Independence School District audit was not prompted by citizen complaints, but selected because of its four-day school week and because it’s one of the state’s larger school districts.

Missouri voters passed a constitutional amendment in November 2022 that required Kansas City to increase its minimum funding of the police department. But the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the language on the original measure was so inaccurate that it casts doubt on the fairness of the election.

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick, a Republican, issued an audit of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office and downgraded his administration to the second-lowest rating because it illegally withheld documentation about election cybersecurity. Ashcroft, who is also a Republican, criticized the report as a political attack.

In a scathing preliminary audit released Monday, Missouri State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick said that up to 200,00 Jackson County taxpayers were victims of a reassessment that "violated state statute and trampled on their rights."

A Missouri appeals court ruled that Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's titles for six abortion-rights ballot issues were "replete with politically partisan language." Even though the proposed constitutional amendments cover all aspects of reproductive health care, Ashcroft's titles had a single-minded focus on abortion.

A new lawsuit from the Missouri Women and Family Research Fund contends that the way Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft summarized six abortion rights initiatives “are intentionally argumentative, insufficient, and unfair.”

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick says a review of the Children’s Division, which has struggled for years to recruit and retain staff, may not happen right away because of staff constraints in his own office. Meanwhile, Missouri has a backlog of more than 10,000 open child abuse and neglect cases.

The unanimous verdict was scathing in its assessment of Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who refused to sign off on the work of Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick. The court concluded that nothing in state law “gives the attorney general authority to question the auditor’s assessment of the fiscal impact of a proposed petition.”

In the ruling, a Cole County judge said that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey had an "absolute absence of authority" in refusing to accept the state auditor's estimate for an abortion rights initiative petition and attempting to falsely inflate the cost. Bailey's office said it would appeal the decision.

Proponents of an initiative petition seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution have been unable to begin collecting signatures because of a showdown between the attorney general and state auditor. In a lawsuit, Missouri ACLU claims that Attorney General Andrew Bailey has made an illegal effort to falsely increase the cost of the amendment.