Republicans and Democrats in the Massachusetts State House united on Thursday to support a bill that State Auditor Diana DiZoglio (D) says will undermine the results of a popular ballot question giving her the authority to audit the legislature.
“If you strip away the ability for our office to conduct the audit, you give yourselves the ability to control the scope of the audit, by an outside firm, since you’ll still control how much you pay for the audit, what you will allow their scope to be, and what you will allow them to examine or not examine,” said DiZoglio, addressing the legislature in a Nov. 14 post to X.
“You’ll be giving yourself control over every aspect of the process which will be overseen by you, and not our office, exempting yourself from oversight —yet again— slapping voters in the face” she added.
The bill, H5105, would amend the House rules to require the State Auditor to recommend an independent auditing firm, preventing her from conducting the audits herself.
The bill serves to undermine the results of Massachusetts’ Ballot Question One before it even goes into effect.
The question explicitly asked voters if they wanted to give DiZoglio the authority to personally audit the legislature, and it received overwhelming 71.58 percent support, with every municipality in the state voting “yes.”
Despite overwhelming support from voters, the House overwhelmingly approved H5105, to alter the process for an audit.
The House voted 135-10 in support of the change, including bipartisan backing from House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) and House GOP Leader Brad Jones (R-Reading).
House Speaker Mariano defended his vote, claiming that the change upholds the separation of powers by requiring a non-government third party to conduct the audit.
“This proposed rule change is the first step in the House’s effort to respect the will of the voters without violating the separation of powers clause that is foundational to the Massachusetts Constitution,” said Mariano.
DiZoglio, who ran on the promise to audit the legislature, has said that a third-party audit, as laid out in H5105, would put the Speaker in charge of the audits and allow the legislature to conceal the results from taxpayers.
“Legislators would still possess the sole authority to block the taxpayer’s access to what ANY audit uncovers and show us ONLY what they want to show us like they do now, from whatever LIMITED review they happen to allow,” said DiZoglio on X.
DiZoglio has reached out to Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the state’s far-left governor, Maura Healey (D), asking for help in implementing the audits as laid out in the ballot question supported by voters.
They have not yet said whether they intend to support DiZoglio.
The Massachusetts GOP has come out in support of DiZoglio’s crusade to audit the legislature, siding with the Democrat auditor over the legislative leaders.
“The Massachusetts Republican Party stands in full support of State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s mandated authority to audit the legislature,” said the Massachusetts GOP, “Any attempt by the legislature to backpedal or evade an independent audit blatantly disregards the will of the voters.”
The GOP claimed that the Republican legislators who supported the bill were only voting for it as a temporary change to existing audit rules before the ballot question goes into effect in January.
They portrayed Democrats in the legislature as the true force behind attempts to undermine the audit.
Two Massachusetts-based non-profits focused on government accountability, usually on opposite sides of the political aisle, penned a joint statement opposing the change.
“Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka are slow-walking adoption of the ballot question and discussing potential “changes” to it in closed-door leadership meetings. MassFiscal and Act on Mass are both launching campaigns to urge constituents to contact their lawmakers to allow the will of the voters to prevail for the state auditor to audit the legislature,” said Mass Fiscal Alliance and Act on Mass.
The Maine Wire reached out to DiZoglio’s office for comment.
“The voters made it crystal clear by roughly 72% of the vote that they want the Office of State Auditor to conduct audits of the state legislature, just as we do for every other state entity. This move completely undermines and disrespects the will of the voters,” DiZoglio speaking to The Maine Wire.
She explained that the situation in the Massachusetts House is about “insiders” asserting their will despite the will of the voters, rather than being a partisan issue.
“There are insiders and there are outsiders, and unfortunately, there are both Democratic and Republican, powerful insiders up on Beacon Hill who have worked together for many years and unfortunately share the opinion that the will of the voter does not matter on this front now, certainly the House of Representatives is welcome to change their rules as that is their right,” she added.
Updated to include comments from DiZoglio.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32598 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32598">4 Comments
Mills peaking in the window thinking if it works there…
This is why the Maine Republican Party needs to be beefed up and take back the house. One party rule gets you these Nazi tactics.
I laugh at my Mass. ass friends every day.
Deep state, don’t rock he boat