State Auditor Diana DiZoglio is ramping up her efforts to persuade the Massachusetts House and Senate to comply with a new law, overwhelmingly passed by voters as a ballot question this November, that explicitly gives her the authority to audit the state Legislature.
At a press conference in her office Wednesday morning, DiZoglio appeared with representatives from the conservative group Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and the progressive group Act On Mass, both of which support the new law.
“If we want to make bold and meaningful change up on Beacon Hill, then it’s time to come together, because Beacon Hill is no longer about Democrat or Republican,” DiZoglio said. “Beacon Hill is about power: those who have it, and everybody else.
”And that is why you see an incredibly conservative group coming together with an incredibly progressive group to address the need for change, putting partisan politics aside to make sure that Beacon Hill power brokers are held accountable to the people of the commonwealth.“
As DiZoglio spoke, she was flanked by a placard containing an excerpt from the Massachusetts Constitution which indicated that the new law ”shall take effect in thirty dates after [the] state election“ — in other words, she argued, tomorrow.
In contrast, Secretary of State Bill Galvin has suggested that the law actually takes effect thirty days after the results of the state’s various ballot question votes are certified. Since certification is slated for Wednesday, that interpretation would mean the law codifying DiZoglio’s powers would not become operative until early January.
While DiZoglio acknowledged that this question has not been explicitly decided by the courts, she said her office’s reading squares with guidance from Attorney General Andrea Campbell, as well as on Galvin’s website.
The question of when the law takes effect has a direct bearing on how soon DiZoglio will be able to force litigation aimed at resolving her ongoing standoff with the Legislature, which has repeatedly suggested that allowing her to audit the House and Senate would violate separation of powers provisions in the Massachusetts Constitution.
DiZoglio plans to send a letter to legislative leaders Thursday requesting their cooperation with a ”performance audit,“ which would include both financial details and other subjects like the Legislature’s controversial use of nondisclosure agreements. She indicated Wednesday that she expects legislative leaders will refuse to cooperate, and that she will then go to Campbell to seek legal representation aimed at forcing the Legislature to comply.
However, DiZoglio also acknowledged that she’s concerned that Campbell, who suggested prior to passage of the new law that DiZoglio lacked the audit authority she was attempting to assert, may ultimately decline to represent her.
”I hope the attorney general’s office, due to the tremendous amount of support that the question received on the ballot ... will have a change of heart and choose to represent us in court should this issue need to proceed to court,“ DiZoglio said.
”I am asking folks, please call the attorney general, let your voices be heard, and ask the attorney general [to] stand up for the voters, have the backs of the people of Massachusetts, and represent the will of the people in court if need be,“ she added.
DiZoglio did not answer a question about what her contingency plan is if Campbell declines to represent her. But the press conference raised the possibility that the Mass. Fiscal Alliance and other groups could enter the legal fray if that happens.
”Once this kicks in, it’s not just the auditor —it’s the people who spoke on this issue,“ Mass. Fiscal spokesperson Paul Diego Craney said. ”There is a possibility that outside groups can jump in to compel the state to follow the will of the voters ... We’re always looking to sue the state. We have in the past.“
In addition to urging the public to contact Attorney General Campbell, DiZoglio also called on voters to urge legislative leaders to comply with the new law.
”I want to make sure that folks at home who want to do something about this are empowered,“ she said.
DiZoglio also made a foray into media criticism at one point, distributing past reports on the executive branch from the Senate Committee on Post Audit and Oversight that she said show the Legislature routinely claims and exercises the very sort of oversight powers it now claims DiZoglio lacks the constitutional authority to exercise. The press should do a better job of highlighting this inconsistency, she suggested.
In addition, DiZoglio reiterated her claim that the Legislature was routinely audited by the state auditor’s office for decades. While this is true, the scope of those audits was significantly narrower than the oversight DiZoglio now seeks to provide.
In November’s election, 72% of Massachusetts voters backed the creation of a new law explicitly giving DiZoglio audit authority.
