State Auditor Diana DiZoglio dismissed top lawmakers’ claims that she lacks the authority to audit the Legislature on Monday, days after House Speaker Ron Mariano said he wouldn’t comply with her probe.
“We’ve already started the process of conducting the audit,” DiZoglio said in an interview on Boston Public Radio. “With all due respect to Speaker Mariano, he is one of 200 legislators. Other legislators are more than welcome to speak to our office. Now, they might want to not do that so publicly due to the potential fear of retaliation, but they are able to speak with us. Their staff is as well.”
DiZoglio, a Methuen Democrat who has served in both the state House and Senate, was elected auditor last fall after a campaign in which she pledged to audit both the Legislature and the MBTA.
She announced March 7 that she’d launched her review of the Legislature, a body that she called “a closed-door operation.” She said she wanted to identify ways state government can do better.
DiZoglio’s predecessor, former Auditor Suzanne Bump, said last year that she didn’t believe the office had the authority to audit the Legislature. Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka appear to share that interpretation of state law.
Mariano, in a letter to DiZoglio Friday, and Spilka, in a statement earlier this month, said the House and Senate have rules that require regular audits from outside firms and publicly post their financial information. They both pointed to the Massachusetts Constitution’s separation of powers among the different branches of government.
“That your office has the legal authority to conduct an audit of the General Court is a claim entirely without legal support or precedent, as it runs contrary to multiple, explicit provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution, and is wholly unnecessary as the public currently has full and ready access to the House’s financial information,” Mariano wrote.
But in Monday’s interview, DiZoglio made it clear she disagreed. She said that the separation of powers argument is “bogus” because her office audits the courts, mentioning an audit of the Supreme Judicial Court she plans to release soon.
“The Legislature is unfortunately — not the entire Legislature — legislative leadership is unfortunately, yes, using that as, frankly, an excuse to not be audited,” she said. “I find it very disappointing.”
The audit standoff comes as the House and the Senate are gearing up to write and debate their versions of next year’s budget, deciding how much money to dedicate to each corner of state government — including the auditor’s office.
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Mariano, in an interview on WCVB that aired Sunday, pointed to that dynamic as one reason he doesn’t believe the audit is appropriate.
“I have authority over the auditor’s budget, so there are inherent conflicts when you start crossing the executive branch with the legislative branch or the judicial branch, and the constitution is designed to not allow those interferences,” he said.
Gov. Maura Healey’s budget proposal recommends funding the auditor’s office and its various divisions at a total of $26.6 million for the next fiscal year, nearly $4 million more than what was in this year’s budget.
DiZoglio said if the Legislature decides not to “adequately” fund her office in retaliation for her audit, “they would be retaliating against the residents of Massachusetts who deserve to know how their taxpayer dollars are being spent.”
DiZoglio said she hopes her review of the Legislature will increase transparency and accountability on Beacon Hill. Massachusetts is unique among state governments because its courts, governor’s office and Legislature all claim exemption from public records laws. The state’s open meeting law, too, excludes the Legislature.
“Right now, bills are being voted on in the dark of night, committee votes are not being made public, even legislators sometimes don't have the opportunity to read bills upwards of 100 pages or more until just before the vote is being taken,” DiZoglio said.
