COLUMBIA - State Auditor Nicole Galloway said her public service work is intended "to make the community around me better."
Galloway was the featured speaker at a midday meeting Tuesday of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
She has been state auditor since April 2015, appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon after Auditor Tom Schweich killed himself in February 2015.
She was Boone County's treasurer when Nixon named her to the state post.
"I believe that government at all levels should be transparent and responsive to the needs of citizens," Galloway said. "As state auditor I am the only independent watchdog that holds government accountable - rooting out waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement.
"In the past two years, we've identified more than $130 million in government fraud, waste and abuse" in state, county and city governments.
Some of her staff's audits have led to "30 different criminal counts brought against 11 public officials."
Galloway, a Democrat, said she applies the same standards to all audits, and doesn't make political decisions in choosing audits.
"It's important that someone in state government is, independently, looking out for taxpayers," she said, "making sure that every dollar you send to Jefferson City is spent wisely.
"Policy decisions should be driven by real data, and not by politics. The role of the auditor is to demand accountability."
Galloway promoted her "budget integrity series" being done now, with audits released through at least October, as a "series of audits that examine the policy decisions that brought us to this point," where the state faces a $500 million shortfall between actual revenues and the amount of state income predicted a year ago.
"We're looking at tax credits, tax exemptions, entitlement spending and the preparation of the fiscal forecasts that lawmaker use during the legislative process."
Galloway noted her work in the private sector - including being an auditor at Shelter Insurance - helps her understand the need "for a good business climate here, to grow jobs. But we need to, independently, measure how well we've done that through the goals of the Legislature, policy making and tax policy, and the budget.
"We're also taking a hard look at the 'tax burden,' (which) are increasingly being pushed to local government and the local community, to fund schools and other economic development priorities."
She told the Columbia chamber members: "Budgets aren't just phantom numbers on a piece of paper - there are working Missourians behind every dollar, and communities and families (are) impacted by every decision that the Legislature makes."
Her philosophy, Galloway said, is to "figure out where we've gone wrong, before we repeat the mistakes of the past, with Missourians' money."
Galloway noted Missouri has a "balanced budget requirement, but we have not really budgeted that way on the front end, to avoid cuts later on in the process."
She acknowledged in an interview the constitutional language only requires the budget be balanced on June 30 - the last day of the state's business year - but she's not seeking to change the Constitution.
"This is the playing field we have to work with," she told reporters. "We want policymakers to have the best information they can when they are making decisions about our tax dollars."