STATE AUDITOR Diana DiZoglio’s ballot question giving her office the power to audit the Legislature cruised to a jaw-dropping victory on Tuesday, but with that hurdle out of the way she now faces additional challenges as the campaign enters a new phase.
Voters made clear where they stand on the issue. The Associated Press declared the “yes” side on Question 1 the winner just before midnight. With 63.4 percent of the vote counted, the margin was 71.4 to 28.6 percent. The question had strong support across the political spectrum; only one community, Spencer, voted against the ballot question by 47 votes.
DiZoglio called the margin a clear mandate from the state’s voters and pledged to immediately reopen the audit she released two weeks ago to pursue the information the Legislature withheld from her office.
“Tonight’s victory is an opportunity for all of us to look forward and make government work better,” she said.
The Legislature, which did not organize any opposition to the ballot question, is not expected to go along with what the voters approved. House and Senate leaders have said the law violates the state’s constitution and have indicated their chambers may rewrite or reject the law. Or they could simply ignore it, precipitating a possible court fight over its legality.
In a brief interview on Tuesday night, DiZoglio said she is prepared to take on the Legislature either in court or on Beacon Hill. She said she is enlisting the support of supportive lawmakers to block any action in the Legislature that would undermine Tuesday’s vote. If that fails, DiZoglio said, she is urging the governor to side with the state’s voters.
“I’m calling on Gov. Healey to veto their attempt to overturn the will of the people,” she said.
Senate President Karen Spilka issued a cautious statement last night. “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,” she said.
DiZoglio’s victory in the ballot campaign on Tuesday appears to be just the first step in what could be a lengthy fight.
DiZoglio released an audit of the Legislature two weeks before the election. Normally, the auditor wouldn’t audit the same entity for another two or three years, but she said in this case she will resurrect the audit she just completed and go back to the Legislature for the information it refused to provide earlier.
That could precipitate a legal showdown pitting the auditor against the Legislature. It could also put Attorney General Andrea Campbell in an awkward spot, forcing her to choose whether to represent DiZoglio in the legal fight.
Campbell bluntly told DiZoglio before her ballot campaign that she lacked the legal authority to audit the Legislature without its permission. Now that voters have given DiZoglio that authority, the question is how far it extends.
Campbell previously declined to say how she intended to vote on Question 1, but her spokesperson issued a statement indicating even the passage of the new law by voters would have its limitations.
“AG Campbell believes in transparency, and does not oppose audits of the Legislature just as long as they are consistent with the state constitution,” the statement said.
That last phrase is the sticking point because many of the holes in DiZoglio’s legislative audit deal with issues the Legislature considers part of its exclusive domain, and not subject to review by another branch of government.
DiZoglio argued that the Legislature’s refusal to cooperate with the audit demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of the separation of powers doctrine. “The separation of powers doctrine forbids departments from exercising the powers of the other departments; it does not preclude oversight by one department over another,” the audit stated. The audit also noted that the Legislature would not be required to implement any of the changes recommended in audits.
DiZoglio said in the interview with CommonWeath Beacon that she didn’t think the Legislature could prevail in court, in part because the Legislature’s Post Audit and Oversight Committee already conducts performance audits of the executive branch – exactly the type of audit she wants to do of the Legislature. She described the Legislature’s stance as “an audit for thee but not for me” approach, and suggested lawmakers are unlikely to pursue that path.
Voters approved the ballot question at a time when the Legislature is coming under fire for failing to finish its business by the end of the legislative session on July 31 and resorting to somewhat unorthodox changes in its rules to finish its work.
“The legislative process at the State House is completely broken,’ said Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which lent its support to the ballot question effort. “Today’s victory shows that the people of Massachusetts want more transparency and accountability from their leaders in state government. These results are a repudiation of what is going on at the State House.”
Craney urged legislative leaders to obey the will of the voters. “If they act as election deniers and don’t comply, Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance will continue to do whatever is necessary to ensure the will of the voters are accepted,” Craney said.
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