Accountability. Efficiency. Transparency.

Those are the goals of Minnesota State Auditor Rebecca Otto as she looks forward to a second term in her position.

In the middle of a whirlwind statewide tour with the media, Otto, DFL-Marine on St. Croix, stopped in Albert Lea Friday to share the successes of her first term in office and discuss her goal to make Minnesota a national leader by focusing on “excellent and efficient” government.

Otto is seeking re-election against GOP candidate Pat Anderson, the former state auditor from 2003 to 2007.

The state auditor oversees the spending of over 4,000 units of local governments, which spend over $20 billion a year, she said.

Otto said her focus on efficiency differentiates her from Anderson.

Recently awarded the Excellence in Accountability Award from the nonpartisan National State Auditors Association, Otto also helped form the Collaborative Governance Council, which brings experts from the public and private sectors together to find new ways to collaborate and innovate to produce more efficient government.

“Collaboration is essential in tight times,” she said. “It is more efficient and leads to better results for taxpayers.”

She noted she thinks she has the ability to bring people together from all sides of the aisle to find solutions to problems in government.

“We have to talk to each other, listen to each other and work together wherever possible,” she said.

During tight economic times, the state cannot afford the status quo in government, she added.

She noted she seeks to work with cities and local governments to reduce overhead costs that can in turn go toward public safety or other services such as libraries that are being cut.

“Finding efficiencies in government doesn’t mean laying off teachers, laying off police officers, laying off firefighters,” Otto said. “There’s still more low-hanging fruit.”

She said she is concerned about cuts to local government aid and the effects those have had on communities, pointing out that in 2003, Anderson recommended historic LGA cuts of 43 percent to help solve the state’s budget deficit.

Otto said cutting LGA has driven city property tax revenues up by 102 percent.

“The state auditor oversees local community finances, not the state’s budget deficit,” she said. “Dumping the state’s fiscal mess onto property taxes is not the solution and her pushing for LGA cuts cost us all.”

Otto also pointed to financial errors of Anderson while in office.

Married for 22 years, Otto said she and her husband had a small business for 10 years. In the past, she’s also worked as a teacher, been on the Forest Lake school board and served as the state representative for state House District 52B in Stillwater.

This experience in both the local and state government is key to the position of state auditor, she said.

“A lot of people said I was very prepared to be the state auditor,” Otto said.

She noted she’s always tried to focus on budgetary issues, and thinks transparency in government is important.

“I want people to be able to trust our government,” she said, noting that since she was elected there has been an overhaul of the state auditor’s website so it would be easier for people to find information there.

Her office has also been able to conduct three times as many investigations as in previous years into fraud and other problems on the city and school level.

She lives on a small farm and has an appreciation for the farming community, she added.

After her stop in Albert Lea, Otto was headed to the Mower County Fair and Dakota County Fair for similar visits.