Auditor expects lawmakers to meddle with Question 1, calls for Healey veto if it happens

The people want sunshine, and they should call their lawmakers to let them know not to change the law they just passed, according to the State Auditor.

Auditor Diana DiZoglio, told the Herald on Sunday that the best way to ensure a new law passed by the voters through a ballot initiative allowing her to look into legislative affairs is actually implemented, is to reach out to their state representatives and senators to tell them not to mess around.

“Taxpayers who want their vote respected on this matter should immediately begin reaching out to their legislators and the Governor to ask them to commit to defending this audit – with no special exemptions for themselves. The voters have spoken but we need to keep speaking up on this,” she said.

If they don’t, DiZoglio said, lawmakers on Beacon Hill are likely to “try to tamper with the law that voters just approved, to either carve out special exemptions for themselves or overturn the law entirely.”

“However, if they do attempt to alter this law by creating special exemptions for themselves that don’t exist for others, I’ve already made it clear that I will be calling on the Governor, in the strongest terms possible, to exercise her veto authority to protect the taxpayers. That would then require the Legislature to override her veto with a 2/3 majority on a recorded roll call vote. So, rank and file legislators could have the opportunity to keep this law in place, for the people, over the objections of the Speaker and Senate President,” she said.

DiZoglio has been on a mission to audit the Legislature since taking office nearly two years ago. In that time, her efforts have been stymied by lawmakers who say they are exempt from her authority according to the separation of powers doctrine indicated in the state constitution. DiZoglio’s fight grew to the point she backed a change to state laws to expressly authorize her watchdog position over House and Senate activities.

That law, Question 1 on this year’s ballot, was approved by the voters on Tuesday over the objections raised by House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, who both maintained that internal auditing done by each chamber is sufficient to catch any problems.

Now that it passed, the lawmakers said in a joint statement they will treat this ballot question the same as any other.

“Consistent with how the Legislature has moved forward with every voter-approved ballot question in the past, we will consider next steps regarding how to best respect the Question 1 election results in a manner that aligns with the fundamental principles of the Massachusetts Constitution, including separation of powers.”

DiZoglio says the pair of them have, for months, engaged in a campaign of willful misrepresentation and have “intentionally misled voters regarding the constitutionality of an audit.”

“They know, very well I might add, that their argument holds no water since they themselves conduct “performance audits” of executive branch agencies through their post audit and oversight committees. It doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to figure out that it would be impossible for them to conduct any audits or oversight hearings of the executive branch, if their own separation of powers argument had any merit,” she told the Herald.

Neither the Speaker’s Office or the Senate President’s Office returned a request on DiZoglio’s assertions.