BOSTON — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio is ratcheting up the pressure in her escalating feud with fellow Beacon Hill Democrats by threatening to file a lawsuit to force an audit of the state Legislature.
On Wednesday, DiZoglio said she has asked Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit forcing House and Senate leaders to cooperate with a performance audit she initiated earlier this year.
DiZoglio, a Methuen Democrat, said House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-Quincy, and Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, have so far blocked her efforts to conduct the investigation into the House and Senate’s often opaque inner workings.
Her office released a 19-page memo outlining legal arguments to conduct the audit, citing audits of the Legislature dating back to 1850.
“We have two legislators, who were elected by a very small fraction of the state, twisting and weaponizing both Massachusetts General Law and the Constitution against the people of the entire state of Massachusetts to try and shield themselves from basic accountability,” she told reporters at a Wednesday briefing.
It’s not clear, however, if the litigation will ever proceed. A spokesperson for Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she has received a request and will “review and respond in due course.”
Mariano wouldn’t comment on DiZoglio’s move to pursue litigation and a spokesperson referred questions to a March letter responding to the auditor’s plans to conduct the audit.
In the letter, Mariano wrote that DiZoglio’s claims that she has the legal authority to conduct the audit is “entirely without legal support or precedent” and is “wholly unnecessary” as the public has access to the House’s finances.
“Therefore, given that your attempt to conduct a performance audit of the House of Representatives exceeds your legal authority and is unconstitutional, your request to meet to begin such audit is respectfully denied,” Mariano wrote.
A Spilka spokesperson echoed those sentiments in a statement, writing that the state Constitution and separation of powers clause “dictate that the Senate is required to manage its own business and set its own rules.”
“Those rules require that the Senate undergo an audit every fiscal year by a certified public accounting firm experienced in auditing governmental entities and provide that audit to the public,” the spokesperson said.
But DiZoglio argues in the legal memo that the Legislature is considered a “legislative department” of the state government, giving the auditor power to investigate the workings of the House and Senate.
She said at least 113 audits have been conducted of the Legislature in the past 150 years, but more recently state auditors have been reluctant to investigate it.
Meanwhile, the Legislature routinely exerts oversight and audit authority over the executive and judicial branches of government, which DiZoglio said pours cold water on claims that her audit would violate the separation of powers doctrine.
DiZoglio pledged on the campaign trail to conduct the audit, which echoes many of her criticisms during her tenure as a lawmaker. She served several terms as a state representative and senator, and was a frequent critic of the House and Senate’s secretive lawmaking process.
On Wednesday, she pointed out that the Legislature’s restrictive public records law consistently earns Massachusetts failing grades from First Amendment groups.
Groups that have pushed for more transparency on Beacon Hill welcomed DiZoglio’s push for an audit, saying a review of the legislative process is long overdue.
“It’s no secret that Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka oversee the most secretive and dysfunctional legislative body in America,” said Paul Craney, a spokesman for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “The victims are the taxpayers who must deal with the consequences of their lack of transparency and accountability.”
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.