Election 2022: It's Keith Faber vs. Taylor Sappington for state auditor in Ohio

The financial watchdog for Ohio's public dollars is the state auditor, and voters this fall will decide whether to stay the course with Republican Keith Faber or change direction by electing Democrat Taylor Sappington.

It's an important (if often overlooked) position in state government, according to University of Cincinnati Professor David Niven.

"They have the capacity to decide what’s important enough to doublecheck," Niven said. "It may sound boring, but when you’re talking about billions of taxpayer dollars, it’s a critical office in determining not only political malfeasance but plain old stupidity."

Ohio's auditor is in charge of financial audits, performance audits, and a special investigation unit focused on fraud and corruption. The auditor also sits on the Ohio Redistricting Commission which draws lines for state House, Senate and congressional districts.

In the last four years, investigators found that our unemployment system paid out billions in over- and fraudulent payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators with the office also found that the College Credit Plus program could be doing more to enroll Ohio's students and that Ohio's complex system for determining Medicaid eligibility cost taxpayers millions.

"Auditors are financial watchdogs," Niven said.

Faber, 56, has served in that role since 2019. Before that, Faber served as a state representative, state senator, and president of the Ohio Senate. He's also an attorney and a married father of two.

Sappington comes from southeast Ohio where he serves as the auditor of Nelsonville. At 31 years old, he's one of the youngest Ohioans to ever seek statewide office. And Sappington's also the first openly gay man to run statewide.

To help voters decide who should keep an eye on their taxpayer dollars, we asked Faber and Sappington the same set of questions. Here are their answers:

Why are you the best candidate for Ohio state auditor?

Faber: "My broad-based state government experience, both serving in the legislature and as senate president, has given me the ability to know how government works and the ability to ask the right questions to hold government accountable."

Sappington: "I get where voters come from. I come from a working-class and at times poverty-based upbringing.  I was taught while growing up the value of integrity."

What's at the top of your resume for recent professional accomplishments?

Faber: "That's tough, choosing one out of literally the thousands that we do...Unemployment fraud and the overpayment audits we did during the pandemic," Faber said. "Because of our action, the governor promptly responded and likely saved Ohioans billion of dollars in additional exposure."

"We got recognition nationally for being one of the first auditors in the country to be on top of that."

Unemployment in Ohio:Ohio's unemployment overpayments hit $3.86 billion during pandemic

Sappington: When Sappington took over as Nelsonville's city auditor, he quickly noticed "irregularities" in city payroll and direct deposit reports.

His investigation led to the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of former Deputy Auditor Stephanie Wilson for felony theft in office.

"I decided to take swift action against those stealing from the city," Sappington said. Between the restitution ordered and negotiations with the IRS to forgive its penalties, "we’re talking about a major financial turnaround for the city."

What major audits and/or policy changes would you want to implement if elected?

Faber: Ohio's auditor wants to expand both the number of performance audits his office conducts going forward and their scope.

"I have doubled the number of people in our performance audit division," he said. And that's created "hundreds of millions in savings recommendations."

But he wants to move beyond the "penny, nickel and dime issues" to bigger picture, programmatic change recommendations like he did with the recent College Credit Plus audit.

"One of the other things we are going to continue to work on is how to make higher education more affordable."

Sappington: "One of the places I want to immediately look into is the PUCO (Public Uutitlies Commission of Ohio) board."

PUCO is tasked with overseeing the companies that supply gas and electricity to Ohioans. Sappington wants to find out how the board came to be run by someone handpicked by one energy company and got tangled up in the House Bill 6 investigation, the state's biggest public corruption scandal in history.

"How is it possible that a public entity set up for the safety and security of the ratepayer became such an active participant in a bribery scandal involving electric bills," Sappington said. "How can we make changes that would make sure that doesn’t happen again?"

Sappington wants to start a public corruption task force and said Faber is "not aggressive enough."

"Special audits are specially set aside for theft, corruption, and wrongdoing, but his office has not even produced the average yearly number of audits in his entire term...I think there is an ample amount of evidence that shows this is not someone who is aggressive when it comes to taking on members of his own party or the other party when it comes to corruption."

Faber: Given the opportunity to respond, Faber said, "We've convicted 90 individuals for lying, stealing and cheating. We've literally identified tens of millions of dollars for recovery...On the fraud side, criminal convictions were certainly running ahead of the annual pace."

Ohio nuclear bailout: Records show Sam Randazzo influence

How involved is/should Ohio be in tracking federal COVID relief dollars?

Faber: "We are the federal government's eyes and ears on how the federal government's money is spent."

And part of that responsibility is to be proactive and prevent mistakes.

"I held 50 town hall meetings with local government officials with how they can spend the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) dollars," Faber said. "We continue to give advice ... And I think most people would say we are a great local partner to work with. We can’t give forgiveness. What we can give is permission."

Sappington: "I do think the state auditor has an important role," Sappington said, pointing to Iowa's 2021 audit accusing its governor of misusing COVID dollars.

JobsOhio is a private economic development nonprofit that was seeded with public dollars. What, if any, oversight should Ohio have?

Faber: "We’ve had a very good working relationship with JobsOhio that has dramatically increased transparency."

Faber's office works with JobsOhio's private auditing firm (Deloitte & Touche) to formulate the terms, scope and questions.

"I asked, point blank, what would be different if we were doing the audit ourselves, and the short answer was nothing," he said.

Sappington: "JobsOhio has literally barred the doors from accountability. It’s been made that way on purpose."

The Kasich administration gave control of Ohio's liquor monopoly to JobsOhio, a move that essentially replaced the Department of Development. And figuring out whether that's working has been a campaign promise of many statewide politicians (including Faber and Gov. Mike DeWine.)

Sappington thinks Ohio needs to be more "aggressive" in its oversight though.

"My plan is literally to start showing up," he said. "Sometimes you just need to think a little outside the box and when someone is keeping you out, just show up."

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Keith Faber, Taylor Sappington vying for state auditor in Ohio