White: An update on misspent funds in your hometown
By Shad White, Mississippi State Auditor
It seems like every day we read about politicians doing whatever they can to get more of your money and spend it on nonsense. That’s one reason why I love being State Auditor—it’s one of the only positions in government that can give money BACK to the taxpayers instead of taking it.
That’s exactly what we did this year with the release of our annual “Exceptions Report,” which details every case of misspending of public funds over the last year. I’m proud to say that during this past year, my office returned over $900,000 back to taxpayers.
My office has a zero-tolerance policy for theft of taxpayer dollars. It doesn’t matter who you are, how well-connected you are, or how rich and powerful you might be—if you steal from the taxpayers, we’re going to hold you accountable. And then we’ll post your mugshot on social media for everyone to see when you get convicted.
One case in DeSoto County led a State Senator to file a bill that I called the “Mississippi Corruption Act,” because it would have stripped the Auditor’s Office of a lot of its authority.
Unfortunately for the political establishment, facts are facts and we don’t back away from criminal cases just because a few politicians threaten us. In the end, the Mississippi Corruption Act was killed on the Senate floor by its own author and our case resulted in a guilty plea in March.
Another notable case in North Mississippi involved the former Tax Collector of Benton County, Shannon Wilburn. Wilburn took over $300,000 paid to the Benton County Tax Collector’s office and converted it for his own personal use. We arrested Wilburn and served him with a demand letter in the amount of $358,096.40 last August. The full payment has been received, and Wilburn pleaded guilty to embezzlement.
I love being State Auditor because we get the opportunity to help hold criminals accountable for stealing your tax dollars. The frustrating part, however, is that we don’t have the power to prosecute our cases in court. We have to take our findings to a prosecutor, and they make the decision about whether to charge someone with a crime.
We’re lucky to be able to partner with so many talented and hard-working prosecutors around the state and on the federal level. While not all of them take our cases, the ones that do are true public servants helping us protect your taxpayer dollars.
My office will continue to serve as your watchdog to ensure that tax dollars are protected. We’ll keep bringing our findings to prosecutors and we’ll keep posting the mug shots of criminals for everyone to see. We’ll keep being aggressive with our findings, regardless of who it upsets. We believe the taxpayers of Mississippi deserve no less.
As a final word, I want to thank you for letting me hold this position. My wife and I have three kids at home, ages 6, 3, and 2. Every day I go to work at a job where I can make our beloved Mississippi a little bit better for them. Every dollar we collect is another dollar that can go to tax cuts, teacher salaries, police salaries, or roads—the things that make our state stronger. And I will continue working just as hard to collect misspent taxpayer money as you worked to earn that money in the first place.
Shad White is the 42nd State Auditor of Mississippi. Opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of this publication.
