I was born in New Rochelle, NY and raised in Norwalk, CT.  After my family moved to Florida, I left high school in my junior year (1968) and earned a GED two years later.

I finally returned to school in 1981 when I entered Williams College at age 30.  I graduated with a B.A. in Political Science and went on to receive a J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School (Magna Cum Laude).

I came to Vermont in 1988 to work for then Mayor Bernie Sanders and Peter Clavelle in Burlington’s Community & Economic Development Office.

I left City Hall in 1993 and was a self-employed policy analyst for 19 years prior to my election in 2012.  Among other things, I did some contract work for the State Auditor and the State Treasurer.

As the author of the Job Gap Study (a series of reports for the Peace & Justice Center from 1997 to 2010), I provided information and policy guidance for Legislators dealing with economic development and related tax policies, the livable wage, and the benefits of greater in-state purchasing.

I have enjoyed serving as Vermont State Auditor for the past nine years. I work with a great group of people and it is an honor to promote transparency and accountability in state government. Our performance audits and other reports can be found here.  –> http://auditor.vermont.gov  (hover over reports menu for performance audits, investigative reports, etc.)

I have a history of challenging orthodoxy and looking outside the box for solutions. I am a numbers guy and a stubborn investigator who does not take short cuts.

Tracking the money raised and spent by state government is important but it is just the beginning of the Auditor’s job. The Auditor must also determine if taxpayer money is being spent wisely. That is, do state programs achieve the goals intended by the Legislature and are the programs cost-effective?

Sometimes this type of work angers powerful interests. After all, government officials and special interests don’t like to read that their programs may be ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money. Yet asking difficult questions and speaking uncomfortable truths are exactly the tasks of the state Auditor.