State auditor Diana DiZoglio says right to audit Mass. legislature not up for debate. "It is the law."
State auditor Diana DiZoglio says there should be no debate when it comes to her quest to audit the Massachusetts legislature.
House Speaker Ron Mariano told WBZ-TV in a March 2 interview that DiZoglio's push to move forward with the authority to audit the legislature granted by voter approval of Question One on the 2024 ballot isn't about financial matters, but is instead "a political audit for some issues that she's been railing again since [she] first got into the House."
"Absolutely false," DiZoglio said during her turn on the WBZ-TV set.
Massachusetts legislature audit debate
DiZoglio said the time for politics was over when the voters passed Question One with 72% support.
"The voters decided they wanted an audit of the legislature," she says. "Now that this is passed into law ... it is no longer up for discussion. It is the law."
Legislative leaders beg to differ, and it seems as if the issue will have to be resolved in court. But Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the lawyer of first resort for a case of this nature, has publicly clashed with DiZoglio, claiming in an interview last week that she can't proceed until the auditor provides more information about the scope of her intended audit.
"The auditor and her team know that, so to proceed forward, we need them to tell us what is the scope of your audit? Not in big terms, in specificity and correspondence to our office. Then we can proceed," Campbell said. "So if we do not have certain basic information that we've asked for over and over again, politely and lovingly without demonizing anyone's staff, then we cannot proceed."
"That's just simply untrue," DiZoglio responded. "We've actually given the Attorney General everything we possibly can. She's simply asking us over and over again about the scope of our audit. We repeat the same answers back to her that we repeated to her, because those are our answers. This is not the responsibility of the auditor's office, to convince the Attorney General to do her job. The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and if the law is being violated, it is her duty to enforce the law. We have been practically begging the AG's office to help us. I'm not an attorney. I have asked for her assistance, and what we have been just repeatedly hearing is essentially more stall tactics giving the legislature more time."
MBTA Communities Act
DiZoglio also rebutted Campbell's contention that by ruling the MBTA Communities Act was an unfunded mandate on the cities and town it requires to change their zoning laws to accommodate more multi-family housing, she is putting out "misinformation" that obstructs progress in creating more housing.
"It seems as though this issue is being weaponized against my office because we're pushing the AG and the governor on the legislative audit," DiZoglio said. "So instead of simply taking our recommendations to just fix the issue, very simple to do, this issue is being weaponized. Our office is being blamed for something that's actually the responsibility of this administration. The administration has the responsibility to fund this. It's well within their authority to do so. So as soon as the administration does their job, gets their fiscal impact statement out, the legislature can appropriate the funds, and we can analyze it and say, this is funded."
You can watch the entire interview with DiZoglio above, and join us every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for more Keller at Large coverage of this ongoing story.
