Everything on the table in push for legislative audit

October 10, 2023

By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth reporter

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s quest to audit the Massachusetts Legislature – by court, by ballot initiative, even by song and dance – is keeping her locked in an uneasy standoff with leaders of the branch of government where she previously served.

The former state representative and state senator pledged in her campaign last year for auditor to train the office’s headlights at the notoriously opaque Legislature, examining its finances and its internal processes. She has been rebuffed every inch of the way by House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, who argue she lacks the constitutional authority to force open their books and say their existing internal audit process is sufficient. 

“As the least transparent state legislature in the entire nation, according to most good government groups, we need to work to increase transparency and accountability in any way that we can,” DiZoglio said on The Codcast this week. “And this audit will shine a light on some of the areas where we may need to see improvements.”

DiZoglio is seeking support from Attorney General Andrea Campbell to establish an existing right to audit the Legislature. The attorney general’s office has yet to weigh in, but has been in regular contact with the auditor’s office since DiZoglio’s appeal, she said, and “I know they're hard at work on this.” 

But to cover her bases, DiZoglio is working in her personal capacity on a ballot initiative process that would clearly state that the Legislature is one of the state bodies the auditor can investigate. Campbell’s office overruled a formal objection from the state Senate in certifying the question for the ballot.

Legislative leaders say an audit of their branch would violate the separation of powers principles enunciated by the state Constitution. DiZoglio calls this a “bogus argument,” since the Legislature has some oversight powers to examine the executive branch.

“We've heard a lot from them about their claim that there's some separation of powers, but we haven't heard a lot from them about checks and balances,” DiZoglio said. “And what they're basically saying right now is, ‘Hey, executive branch – an audit for thee, but not for me.’ And that's not the way that this should go. We all need to be held accountable.”



(Story continued after the break.)

This week on the Codcast: State Auditor Diana DiZoglio talks with Jennifer Smith of CommonWealth about her efforts to audit the Legislature using multiple approaches. "We all need to be held accountable," she said. Listen to the full interview.

DiZoglio has framed the audit as a mission to advance public transparency, citing not only her prior experience as a former Beacon Hill staffer but as a legislator struggling with its closed-door systems. A particular informal session stood out, she said, in which the presiding officer clarified that lawmakers were given no time to read a proposal that they were expected to vote for that day. 

“If we, as legislators during that time, were not being given access to those proposals before they were being passed quickly through in an informal session without roll call votes, what does that say about people's access on the ground level in our communities and our neighborhoods,” she said.

In the back-and-forth over whether the auditor's office has authority over the Legislature already, DiZoglio says that the office has uncovered at least 113 past audits of the chambers.

“Those audits were documented and they were in some good old-fashioned books that were located in the back of the auditor's office on some dusty shelves,” she said. “We pulled them off the dusty shelves, we dusted them off, we opened them up, we took a read.”

DiZoglio’s ballot effort needs about 75,000 signatures in the coming months, making her a common off-hours presence outside grocery stores, clipboard in hand. She’s also putting a more musical skill set to work – she wrote and recorded a song called “My Voice” for Boston Public Radio about the effort. 

“I am doing everything I can, including song and dance, in order to get the message out there about this ballot initiative,” Dizoglio said. “So yes, I will sing, I will do theater performances. Whatever it takes, I'm on board.”

For GOP, opportunity knocks in central Mass.: Republicans are on the ropes in the Legislature, but Brent Benson explains why the GOP has at least an even chance of winning the Senate seat in central Massachusetts vacated by Democrat Anne Gobi. The primary is today, with two Republicans and one Democrat vying to compete in the November general election. Read more.

Shelter concerns: Beyond the headlines about the state’s shelter system groaning under the influx of migrants from other countries, there’s another group we need to pay closer attention to – those fleeing domestic violence and sexual abuse. Read more.



Fairness for farmworkers: Harris Freeman of the Western New England School of Law says it’s time to end the second-class, discriminatory treatment of the region’s farmworkers. Read more.

Makeover needed: Sofia Owen of Alternatives for Community & Environment and John Walkey of GreenRoots say the DPU and the Energy Facility Siting Board need to change the way they interact with environmental justice communities. Read more.

Power grid is key: Sue Tierney and Paul Hibbard of the Analysis Group say transforming the power grid is the most important piece of the state’s climate puzzle. Read more.

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Email Maeve Duggan (mduggan@massinc.org) for details.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

• Bedbugs are plaguing the Walter Salvo House, a Northampton Housing Authority property, and prompted closure of some communal spaces. (MassLive)

• A 128-bed nursing home in South Dennis was recently sold to a housing advocacy organization, which plans to use the property to house a family shelter program. (Cape Cod Times)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

• Israel works to regain control of its border with Gaza after an unprecedented attack by the terrorist group Hamas killed more 900 Israelis, most of them civilians. (Washington Post) As Israel declares a siege of Gaza, Hamas threatens to begin killing the more than 100 hostages it took in Saturday’s attack for every Gaza residence bombed without warning. (New York Times) Israel’s defense minister announced a total blockade of Gaza, cutting off electricity, food, and water, prompting condemnation from the United Nations secretary-general. (Al Jazeera)

• Jewish and Muslim residents in Massachusetts grapple with the violence. (Worcester Telegram)

• Kevin McCarthy, who said he would not vie to lead the House after his ouster by hard-right Republicans, says he would consider returning as speaker after all. (New York Times)

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. drops his bid to win the Democratic nomination for president and decides to run as an independent. (Associated Press)

ELECTIONS

• Preliminary election season continues, with voters in Agawam, Gardner, and Marlborough considering candidates for mayor, City Council, and local school committees today. (MassLive)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

• Harvard professor Claudia Goldin won the Nobel Prize in economics for her work on historical gender disparities in wages and labor force participation. (Reuters) CommonWealth previously interviewed Goldin and her husband, Lawrence Katz, also a Harvard economics professor, about their book on the interplay between education and technology for our special issue on the American Dream. 

EDUCATION

• Bishop Fenwick High School of Peabody sues the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association seeking to overturn its decision to ban the school from any postseason play this year. (Salem News)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

• Mount Washington saw its first measurable snowfall of the season, about a month later than normal. (New Hampshire Public Radio)

PASSINGS

• Brian O’Donovan, the longtime host of GBH’s radio show A Celtic Sojourn and the host of “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn,” which has been a holiday tradition for New Englanders for over 20 years, died on Friday at his home after a long battle with cancer. He was 66. (GBH) Shira Schoenberg interviewed him on The Codcast in January and they talked about his grim diagnosis. (CommonWealth