State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has not slowed down in her push to audit the Massachusetts Legislature — a push that almost cost DiZoglio her speech at the 2023 MassDems Convention on Sept. 23.
She aired her grievances unorthodoxly through a song, titled "My Voice," which she premiered on Boston Public Radio Monday.
DiZoglio has been performing music since she was young. "Some people go play basketball, some people do knitting, I go to my piano, and that is my outlet," she said.
Lines like, "You can censor my speech, but you won't silence my voice" permeate the song as she calls for "us to rise up in unity" against a government that is reluctant to her calls for audits.
We aired @DianaDiZoglio's song "My Voice" that she exclusively wrote and recorded for @BosPublicRadio @GBHNews about feeling silenced in politics. 🎶🎶 pic.twitter.com/HOBQcTdfMC
— Boston Public Radio (@BosPublicRadio) September 18, 2023
DiZoglio said her office has begun its audit of the Massachusetts Legislature by analyzing publicly available documents and gleaning information through private meetings.
But her office continues to encounter resistance from legislators who argue the probe is unconstitutional. DiZoglio said they refuse to meet with her office or produce requested documents.
"It is an incredibly awful example to set to other state entities that the Legislature is refusing to comply right now," she said. "Imagine if DFC [Department of Children and Families] just refused to comply with our office. Imagine if the MBTA — during all of their challenging times right now — said 'Sorry auditor, we're not going to comply.'"
DiZoglio is pursuing multiple avenues to support her quest for an audit, including asking for the attorney general's support in a court case and seeking a ballot question on the 2024 ballot...
Attorney General Andrea Campbell approved the ballot question earlier this month, clearing the first of several hurdles for that process. DiZoglio now needs 75,000 signatures by Nov. 22 to push the question forward. She clarified that she cannot take on this effort alone.
"I was out at the grocery store yesterday standing outside of Market Basket collecting signatures myself all afternoon with a team of volunteers. I got a little over 300 myself," DiZoglio said.
She said her goal is to restore more order and accountability to state government.
"Working families send our tax dollars into state government. We work really hard for the resources that we earn in those paychecks. Then, we watch as those tax dollars get taken out, in large sums sometimes, and sent in to state government," she explained. "That state budget is ... discussed and decided largely behind closed doors by only a handful of people who have access to that state budget."
DiZoglio believes her taking on some powerful Beacon Hill democrats may have almost cost her a speaking slot at the upcoming Massachusetts Democratic Convention. She was originally the only constitutional officeholder not listed as a speaker.
DiZoglio, who is supporting a resolution calling for the Democratic Party to regularly audit the state Legislature, says that may have been one of the reasons she wasn't originally included as a speaker.
"Mr. Chairman did allude to the fact that the resolution and my speaking on it was going to be problematic," she said.
She expressed concern via a phone call to the party chair. She subsequently received texts from the state Democratic Party Chair Steve Kerrigan, allotting her "three to five minutes, like the rest of the constitutional officeholders."