Governor Signs off on Audit After a Short Delay

The attorney representing Governor Benson says his client balked at signing the audit because the governor's responsibilities regarding state finances were unclear.

Bryan Gould says the governor sent a separate letter to the firm to clear up any potential misunderstandings.

Gould says the governor backed away from his position once he reached an agreement with the auditing firm, KPMG.
and so what the governor signed today was a recision of that separate letter because in a conference call today with kpmg we became satisfied that kpmg did understand the nature of his responsibility.

According to state officials, every governor in recent times has signed off on the state's audit.

And indeed, Governor Benson signed it last year.

Hours before he approved the audit, Governor Benson said he wasn't holding off on the letter because he doubted the accuracy of any state accounting.

But the governor was hesitant to answer any other questions about the matter.

When he did finally answer, Governor Benson whispered assurance that he expected to sign off on the audit.
i'm sure it will get worked out, so i'm these day in age these audit letters are comprehensive and they have a lot of details associated with them so its important to make sure that legal-isticly they are correct. and that's what bryan gould has been doing for me and that's been going back and forth.

Governor Benson's agreement with the outside auditors closed a nerve racking day for state financial officials.

They were worried the Governor's reluctance to sign the audit letter would somehow send negative signals about state finances to Wall Street.

The state has billions of dollars of bonds outstanding in the nation's markets.

And any downtick in the state's financial rating could mean increased borrowing costs for the state.

Mike Ablowich is New Hampshire's treasurer.

Before the matter was resolved, he said he thought the governor's actions could still negatively effect the state's reputation, even after the episode died down.
its sort of one more thing that people might look and say ...look at us with a little less credibility when we tell them things in the future. but i don't think its easy to quantify an easy one for one sort of x happens then y happens. i don't think its not that simple.

A spokesman for the Governor says he's confident the short duration of the impasse will have no effect on the state's ability to borrow.

Governor Benson leaves office on Thursday.