Johnson details plan for state audit if elected governor

Updated 4:15 p.m.

Republican candidate for governor Jeff Johnson is adding a few more specifics to his plan to hire an outside auditor to examine the effectiveness of state programs.

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An auditor should be able to go through each state program and determine whether it's fulfilling the task it was created to do, said Johnson, adding the audit would likely cost several million dollars in taxpayer money.

"I think we'd be measuring programs for four years. It might take eight years. But we have to at least start and start going through the programs and I think it will be a constant process because we have thousands and thousands of programs to measure," Johnson said.

"It's not something where we're going to have three months we're going to have an audit," he added. "This is going to take a long time and frankly government should be doing it all of the time."

Gov. Mark Dayton dismissed the idea of hiring an outside auditor and said Johnson's plan duplicates work already taking place.

The state's legislative auditor and legislative committees already review the efficiency of state programs, he said, adding that Johnson should be better prepared on the state budget.

"You have to come into this job and be ready to go and ready to act," Dayton said.

"You don't need to bring someone else in from the outside and pay them a couple million dollars to tell them what you should know going into the job."