Mass Auditor DiZoglio Criticizes Legislature Over Transparency, Gets Pushback From Lawmakers

Auditor Diana DiZoglio stepped up her long fight with the Legislature on Monday, releasing a report criticizing lawmakers for a lack of transparency that the top House Democrat derided as “pure political self-promotion and electioneering.”

A fortnight before the close of polls on Question 1 authorizing the auditor to audit the House and Senate, where his efforts have met with resistance, DiZoglio’s taxpayer-funded office issued a 77-page account of his attempts to subject the Legislature to a “performance audit.”

The auditors set out to answer a series of questions about legislative finance, operations and communications.

But DiZoglio’s office said House and Senate Democrats refused to participate, preventing investigators from reaching conclusions in several areas.

DiZoglio, who clashed with legislative leaders during his terms in both chambers, called it “deeply troubling that legislative leaders have refused to cooperate with our office to help promote transparency and identify ways to improve serving the people of Massachusetts.”

“Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of our democracy and allow people to participate in government as intended by our Constitution, in a system of checks and balances. It is past time that we return to the historic practice of this office auditing the Legislature, as has been the case for the vast majority of this office’s history,” Methuen, a Democrat, said in a statement along with the report. “If there’s nothing to hide, open the doors and let the sun in. Sunlight is, after all, the best disinfectant.”

Both House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, and Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, responded.

They renewed arguments that DiZoglio’s office lacks the authority to forcefully audit the Legislature without violating the constitutional separation of powers.

“The alleged audit of the Legislature released today by the Auditor only confirms one thing: the Auditor has abandoned all pretense of faithfully exercising his statutory responsibilities in favor of using his position for pure political and electoral self-promotion” , Mariano said in a statement. .

“The auditor should focus on her legally mandated reviews as she continues to underperform her predecessors in completing this important task,” Mariano continued.

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Gray Milkowski, a spokesman for Spilka, added: “The auditor is singularly focused on the upcoming election and promoting her ballot question, while the Legislature has been busy doing people’s business: passing legislation to provide residents with the largest tax cut in more than a generation, increase access to housing, provide free community college for all, reduce the pay equity gap, create a safer Commonwealth through gun safety reform, providing greater access to educational opportunities for our youngest students, and addressing the climate crisis.

“With all due respect to the auditor, we’ll keep our focus there,” Milkowski said. “As previously stated, the Senate must conduct its own business and make its own rules in accordance with the Massachusetts Constitution and as provided by the separation of powers clause. As required by those rules, the Senate is audited each fiscal year by an independent certified public accounting firm experienced in auditing government entities and makes that audit available to the public.

“In addition, Senate business is made public through journals, calendars and recordings of each session, while payroll and other financial information is publicly available on the Comptroller’s website,” he said.

The new report from DiZoglio’s office made findings in only three of the original eight focus areas: release of annual financial audits to the Legislature, information about pending and enacted bills available on the Legislature’s website, and the lack of a “legislative services” office to support lawmakers.

DiZoglio’s office said that because legislative leaders would not provide documents and interviews, investigators could not gather enough information to reach firm conclusions on five other issues, including how often bills co-sponsored by the majority of legislators and the Legislature’s use of nondisclosure agreements. .

The audit covered the period from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2022, nearly the entirety of a two-year legislative session.

Auditors said the House and Senate failed to ensure independent financial audits of their operations were completed for fiscal years 2021 and 2022. They also said the Senate only posted its 2021 fiscal audit online, but he still refused to submit it to DiZoglio’s office, then the auditor’s team pointed out that it was missing.

The report also said the Legislature’s website has less information available and is more difficult to navigate than some other states when it comes to pending and enacted legislation, making it difficult for residents to understand prominent proposals in motion.

Another area the auditors found lacking is the services available to lawmakers. DiZoglio’s office said Massachusetts is the only state in the country that does not have a nonpartisan legislative services agency to help with bill drafting, research, fiscal analysis and other tasks.

The Bay State once had an office of legislative research, auditors said, but the report said there are no records of that office beyond the 1990s and a 2012 state law repealed the relevant statutes.

DiZoglio’s latest report provides more ammunition for the intense debate over the Legislature’s scrutiny.

After stints in the House and Senate that saw her at odds with key Democrats, DiZoglio ran for audit and made auditing the Legislature a central campaign promise.

House and Senate Democrats refused to comply, arguing that the auditor’s office has no power to subject the Legislature to an overhaul without its consent. Attorney General Andrea Campbell sided with legislative leaders, saying the section of state law that describes departments subject to auditor scrutiny does not include the Legislature.

DiZoglio and his allies across the political spectrum, many of whom are frustrated with the regularly opaque, top-down business under the golden dome, are now raising a ballot question that would explicitly add the Legislature to that list.

Lawmakers continue to argue that the proposal would violate the constitutional separation of powers, but no one is organizing an opposition campaign. Some academics have suggested the measure will end up in court if voters approve it.