Berger wants State Auditor to recommend cuts to North Carolina government

Republican North Carolina lawmakers are introducing another effort to root out government waste and inefficiency, taking a page from the Trump Administration.

Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, on Monday filed Senate Bill 474, also known as the DAVE Act, to create a Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency within State Auditor Dave Boliek’s office.

The state auditor is already tasked with making sure government programs are using their resources properly. Berger’s new bill instructs Boliek to produce a report by the end of the year that identifies which state agencies and state positions can be dissolved.

Berger’s idea comes amid a national push by Republican lawmakers to strip the government of agencies, employees and ideas that they find ineffective or unnecessary. The proposed DAVE program is similar to the federal Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was launched this year by President Donald Trump and is run by billionaire Elon Musk.

“We want our state agencies to work as hard as the citizens that fund them,” Berger said in a statement. “Taking a comprehensive look at state agency spending and staffing to determine if they’re working effectively and efficiently is the right thing to do. If they won’t hold themselves accountable, then the General Assembly will.”

Republicans have been in full control of state government spending in North Carolina for the last 14 years.

In a brief statement to WRAL News, Boliek said he thinks the bill is a great idea. The bill needs support from the House and Senate to become law.

It’s the latest effort at the state level to seek ways to make government more efficient. Republican House leaders created a Committee on Government Efficiency to examine state and local government operations for potential waste.

Then last month, House members summoned several top state government leaders to testify under oath about their offices’ work. Most of the leaders summoned report to Gov. Josh Stein, a Democrat.

In his State of the State address this month, Stein also demonstrated a desire to make government more cost-effective. He announced that he asked his budget office to create what he called an “impact center.”

“We have to be fiscally prudent — to be smart about how we invest taxpayers’ dollars,” Stein said in prepared remarks. He said he created the center “to ensure our government is run effectively and efficiently, because people should know that their tax dollars are being well spent.”

“But let’s get this right,” he added. “Let’s use a scalpel, not a chainsaw.”