( – promoted by Sue Prent)

Tom Salmon has done it again. See his latest effort on behalf of Entergy at vtdigger.

http://vtdigger.org/2012/01/31…

Here is my response.

There he goes again. First, Mr. Salmon said, “As state auditor, it is my duty to evaluate the performance of state government. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that state government has wasted a lot of taxpayer money…”

Recent events regarding energy policy and Vermont Yankee are the result of elections and legislative action. Decisions by our elected officials are unavoidably subjective and cannot be audited like a state program. Mr. Salmon’s comments were about policy decisions. The fact that money was spent reflects choices made by our elected officials. That’s their job; not Mr. Salmon’s.

Mr. Salmon also said, “PSB Chairman Jim Volz and members David Coen and John Burke have the duty to remain objective in the face of shrill, arrogant anti-nuclear zealots who could care less about the practical issues involving energy policy.”

Wow. It’s ironic at best that Mr. Salmon – who routinely ignores the statutory limits of his own job, feels the need to lecture the members of the PSB about their responsibilities.

more below

This is reminiscent of Mr. Salmon’s bizarre ex-parte communication with a state judge over a year ago when he complained about “insincere” public records requests and told the judge how he should do his job (and suggested that there be “boundaries” for public records requests).

Mr. Salmon often says he is “unemotional.” Presumably, this means he is objective. So when he uses words like shrill, arrogant, and zealots, we have to wonder where he left his objectivity.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Mr. Salmon has compromised his objectivity. In august of last year, he called for Burlington Telecom to be auctioned and made unflattering remarks about Burlington’s elected officials. At that time, his office was conducting a legislatively mandated TIF audit of Burlington. To make such remarks during an audit of the city compromised his objectivity.

A year ago Mr. Salmon said he didn’t want to be State Auditor anymore and hoped to run for U.S. Senate, Governor, or Lt. Governor. Having changed his mind, he now seeks to change the definition of his job so he can do what he wants without giving up his very well-paying job. This is not what taxpayers expect of their State Auditor (and what is he not doing while pursuing these other activities?).

This is just the latest in a series of press releases and media events by Mr. Salmon about Vermont Yankee. Perhaps he should resign and register as a lobbyist for Entergy; this press release certainly reads like it was written by Entergy.

Clearly, Mr. Salmon would prefer to be a legislator or chief executive. But he’s not. He’s the State Auditor and he should act like one.