BOSTON — Auditor Diana DiZoglio is threatening to take the state Senate to court over a proposal she says would preempt a ballot question to open up the Legislature and governor’s office to the state’s public records law.
A proposal by DiZoglio and open government groups, which will appear as Question 1 on the Nov. 3 ballot, would make the governor’s office and Legislature subject to the state’s public records law.
But the Methuen Democrat says the move to pry open Beacon Hill’s secretive legislative process could be thwarted by a proposal tied up for a vote in the state Senate on Thursday, which would preempt the ballot question even if voters approve it.
“This is an end run around the ballot question,” she said. “What they’re trying to do is create a law to nullify a law that is about to be created by the electorate, and I believe that it is unconstitutional.
“If they do so, we will take the legal action necessary to ensure that people’s constitutional rights are protected,” DiZoglio said.
Senate Democrats who unveiled the proposal last Thursday said it would make the state Legislature and governor’s office subject to the public records and open meetings laws. They’ve framed it as a way to improve accountability and public access to state government.
The changes, if approved, would take effect in January at the beginning of the next two-year legislative session.
Senate President Karen Spilka called the legislation a “critical step forward” to making the Legislature’s work “more open and accessible to the people we serve” and will allow the public “to clearly see our work and how their tax dollars are spent.”
The proposal has won support from good government groups who say it will help open up Beacon Hill’s often opaque legislative process.
But DiZoglio said the Senate’s proposal contains a “poison pill” provision that would preempt the ballot question and other changes to state records laws. It also would give legislative leaders the upper hand in deciding what information will be released to the public.
“If they really cared about transparency and open government, they would have made these changes years ago,” she said.
Massachusetts is the only state in the country where the governor’s office, the Legislature and the judiciary all claim that they are exempt from the public records law. This has led open-government groups to consistently label its First Amendment protections the weakest in the nation.
The state’s public records law was overhauled in 2016 to improve citizen access to information and make it harder for state and local governments to shield information.
But the Legislature decided to leave its own exemption intact, as well as those for the governor’s office and courts.
Exemptions to public records and open meeting laws mean the state’s top elected officials can do much of their work behind closed doors.
Democrats who hold a majority in both the state House of Representatives and Senate, for example, can discuss bills and the state budget behind closed doors. Often, no records are kept.
The ballot initiative comes as DiZoglio’s efforts to audit the Legislature — which was approved by 72% of the voters in the 2024 election — are tied up in a tangled court fight with Democratic legislative leaders who are refusing to open up their books, claiming the review violates separation of powers.
DiZoglio said resistance to the public records referendum is the latest example of legislative leaders “contempt” for the will of the voters. She cited efforts to block the voter-approved audit and challenges to other ballot questions.
“In Massachusetts, people have a constitutional — and coequal — right to help make laws and they’re trying to usurp that power,” DiZoglio said.
“The Legislature can’t just swoop in every time they don’t like a ballot question and make laws to block the will of the voters.”
Christian M. Wade covers Massachusetts state government and politics for CNHI News and North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.