A “No Kings” rally is planned for Boston Saturday to protest the Trump Administration. If people really want to rail against politicians running roughshod over the American people, they should head to the State House.
That’s where the state Legislature continues to defy the will of the voters who last year approved an audit of the body by 72%. That ballot measure gave the state auditor the authority to examine “the accounts, programs, activities and functions” of the Legislature,
Beacon Hill responded: “no dice.”
At first, the pushback was boilerplate legal volleying. When State Auditor Diana DiZoglio first attempted the audit right after the election, lawyers for the Massachusetts House and Senate said her move was “untimely” because the law had not yet taken effect.
“An initiative petition for a change in law is effective 30 days after the state election in which the petition is approved, unless otherwise provided in the text of the petition. Question 1 contained no such provision,” Senate Counsel James DiTullio and House Counsel James Kennedy wrote. “Furthermore, this 30-day period does not commence until the election has been duly certified.”
The months that followed were more of the same. As the Herald reported, House and Senate leadership made very clear that they were not going to let DiZoglio look into their affairs without a fight, out of concern over the legislative branch’s independence from the executive. But the State Auditor kept at it, trying to pry open the closed doors of the State House while lawmakers did their best to keep them locked tight.
DiZoglio even asked Attorney General Andrea Campbell last December to greenlight a lawsuit to force the House and Senate to comply with the effort to open up their finances and divulge details on internal proceedings, according to a letter obtained by the Herald.
DiZoglio invited Campbell “to join our office’s efforts to disrupt the shameful status quo and shed a bit of sunlight on the woefully opaque” Legislature.
The State House may as well be Castle Dracula with all the sunlight-shunning going on.
A spokesperson for Campbell said the attorney general “respects the will of the voters with regard to Question 1.”
That was then, and this is immediately. DiZoglio is arguing that the attorney general is “working together with legislative leaders” to prevent the probe from unfolding.
Campbell said in a statement shared with the Herald “in order to move forward, the auditor must address our unanswered questions, including assurances that the audit remains within the confines of the constitution.”
DiZoglio’s general counsel and deputy auditor, Michael Leung-Tat, confirmed to the Herald that the office is “actively pursuing the filing of a lawsuit” against the Legislature.
And we are closing in on a year since Massachusetts voters said “open the books, let the people know what’s going on.”
This shouldn’t be a political game of keep-away. The ballot measure passed, that should mean something. It does in a democracy.
That’s something to keep in mind when “No Kings” protestors march just yards away on the Boston Common.
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