By Sydney Topf
Boston University News Service
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio is pressing ahead with her plan to audit the Legislature, despite the Secretary of State’s office arguing she cannot legally begin until January.
DiZoglio sent legislative leaders a letter Thursday demanding they comply with an earlier request to set a date to begin a review.
“Please respond with some potential dates for an entrance conference to be scheduled,” DiZoglio wrote in the letter, which was also sent to top Democrats on the Ways and Means, Rules and Post Audit and Oversight committees, as well as the House and Senate clerks.
She made no mention of Question 1, which voters overwhelmingly approved in November allowing her office to investigate the Legislature. At a Wednesday press conference she argued that the state constitution says she can start this work.
“For all of the arguments that we hear about constitutional challenges, I would think that legislative leaders who are so concerned with constitutionality want to follow the constitution,” DiZoglio said. “So we’re asking the Legislature to follow the constitution and to start cooperating with our office.”
DiZoglio pointed to the sentence in the constitution that declares approved initiatives “shall take effect in 30 days after such state election.”
Secretary of State William Galvin, however, told reporters after the Governor’s Council voted to certify the local election results that the accepted practice is that ballot question measures take effect 30 days after the state election results are certified.
“[DiZoglio is] entitled to her opinion,” he said. “If she wants to pursue it in a court, she can [and] I’m telling you what my opinion is, and if we all end up in court, we’ll tell the judges, and it’ll be their opinion that will count.”
Galvin said that his office was still counting ballots 10 days after the election because overseas residents’ ballots were still being mailed back.
“The idea that you could count those days when you didn’t know the outcome of the election is ridiculous,” he said.
Voters approved the legislative audit measure by 72%, or 2.3 million votes, according to state data.
House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, both opposed the ballot initiative and continue to claim the audit would violate the separation of powers doctrine in the state constitution.
DiZoglio said that she will sue the Massachusetts Legislature if it does not comply with her audit and will seek Attorney General Andrea Campbell as legal representation to force lawmakers to cooperate.
“I hope the attorney general’s office, due to the tremendous amount of support that the question received on the ballot … will have a change of heart and choose to represent us in court should this issue need to proceed to court,“ she said.
DiZoglio also encouraged the public to call the attorney general’s office to motivate Campbell to, “stand up for the voters, have the backs of the people of Massachusetts, and represent the will of the people in court if need be.”
Campbell’s office rejected a request last year from DiZoglio that would force legislative leaders to agree to an audit. Campbell argued she didn’t have standing to file the legal challenge.
Recently, Campbell has continued her commitment to stay on the sidelines, at least until it leads to a “legal dispute,” she told Boston Public Radio last month.
DiZoglio did not answer a question by reporters about her plan if Campbell refuses to represent her, but the groups that joined the press conference raised the possibility that they could step in.
The progressive group Act On Mass and the conservative group Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance joined DiZoglio at the press conference. Both groups supported Question 1.
“There is a possibility that outside groups can jump in to compel the state to follow the will of the voters,” Massachusetts Fiscal spokesperson Paul Diego Craney said at the press conference. “We’re always looking to sue the state [and] we have in the past.“
