Audits Mean Accountability
We endorsed the 2024 ballot question clarifying that our elected state auditor has the authority to audit the Massachusetts legislature. Independent oversight of the legislature’s operations and finances is necessary to make the Massachusetts State House more accountable to the people it is expected to serve.
The ballot measure passed in November 2024 with over 70% of the vote, yet Beacon Hill leaders have refused to comply with State Auditor’s records requests.
Checks and balances are a hallmark of a healthy democracy. No branch of government should be completely shrouded from public view. And, indeed, no other branch of government holds itself as unaccountable to the public’s watchdog, the state auditor, as the Massachusetts State House.
The legislature has exempted itself from the Open Meeting Law and the Public Records Law, important safeguards of the public’s right to know what is going on in government. These exemptions make it all the more necessary that the state auditor exercise oversight of the legislature’s expenditures and operations on the public’s behalf.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio spoke recently about the refusal of the Legislature’s leadership to release records to the Office of the State Auditor. “When they deny our office documents or access to information… they are denying you, the taxpayers, information about what is going on.”
We concur with State Auditor DiZoglio. The Legislature must comply with her audit, which Massachusetts voters have overwhelmingly demanded.