State Auditor Diana DiZoglio is clear-eyed about the chances her proposal to open up the books of the Legislature has on Beacon Hill but said she is approaching a legislative hearing next week to review the matter with “cautious optimism.”
DiZoglio is scheduled to head before a committee Tuesday to pitch a group of legislators on her proposed ballot question that would allow the state auditor’s office to audit the Legislature, an idea that has so far faced fierce resistance from top Democrats at the State House.
The former senator and representative said if history repeats itself, “the Legislature is highly unlikely to support this” and the committee tasked with reviewing the measure is not likely to give it a stamp of approval.
“It is highly unusual for folks who are assigned to committees of such importance like this to oppose legislative leaders. So we know what we’re walking into. But I still think it’s important to show up and to say our piece,” DiZoglio told the Herald in an interview Friday afternoon.
DiZoglio has sparred with both House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka over an effort to conduct a legislative audit, something DiZoglio says is necessary because of the often opaque and closed-door nature of the Legislature.
Mariano and Spilka have stonewalled requests from DiZoglio to willingly participate in an audit, arguing that both of the branches they lead are already regularly scrubbed and handing the auditor the power to look through internal books violates the state constitution.
In a March 2023 letter to DiZoglio, Mariano said the claim that the auditor’s office has legal authority to conduct an audit of the Legislature is “entirely without legal support or precedent.”
After Attorney General Andrea Campbell declined to approve legal action last year to force the Legislature to comply with an audit, DiZoglio was left to pursue a question at the ballot box, a campaign that has already cleared multiple signature hurdles and raised more than $300,000.
But before the question lands before voters in November, the Legislature has an opportunity to take action on the measure. If lawmakers decide against taking action, supporters of potential ballot questions have to collect more signatures.
Mariano and Spilka put together a committee to review all potential ballot questions led by Sen. Cindy Friendman, an Alrington Democrat, and Rep. Alice Peisch, a Wellesley Democrat.
DiZoglio’s chance to convince lawmakers that they should let her peer through the finances, procedures, and inner workings of the House and Senate is scheduled for a 10 a.m. hearing Tuesday at the State House.
DiZoglio said she is more focusing her efforts on pushing her audit questions towards ballot rather than lobbying legislators to pass the measure as a bill, an option they retain.
“Just like when I was in the Legislature, even if a bill failed over and over, such as the nondisclosure agreement legislation that I tried to pass, I didn’t slow down in continuing to get up and to advocate for it while knowing that certain members of leadership were still going to oppose the bill,” she said.