Politicians, particularly those in blue Massachusetts, are big on transparency.
As long as they’re not the ones being scrutinized.
The biggest good-for-thee-but-not-me cohort is the Massachusetts State Legislature, a body that has batted down attempts to pull back the curtain on its operations for years.
Last year, the House nixed a measure to make committee votes public without a recorded vote and ended term limits for the state Senate president. Deals are often done behind closed doors, as if lawmakers were not elected by the taxpayers of Massachusetts.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio isn’t having it.
In March of 2023, DiZoglio launched an audit of the Legislature, saying in a statement: “We hope this will increase transparency, accountability and equity in an area of state government that has been completely ignored. Historically, the Legislature has been a closed-door operation, where committee votes have been hidden from the general public, and legislation has been voted on in the dark of night.
“Taxpayers deserve more – they deserve the opportunity to weigh in on legislative, budgetary and regulatory matters that are important to them. Everyone should have equitable and transparent access to and information about all state-funded agencies, including the Legislature. Unfortunately, the Legislature has not been audited since 1922, while Massachusetts ranks as one of the least transparent and least accessible state governments in the nation,” DiZoglio stated.
That went over on Beacon Hill like a lead balloon.
Speaker of the House Rob Mariano fired back in a letter that month, writing “That your office has the legal authority to conduct an audit of the General Court is a claim entirely without legal support or precedent, as it runs contrary to multiple, explicit provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution, and is wholly unnecessary as the public currently has full and ready access to the House’s financial information.”
But, as Minority Leader of the United States Senate Mitch McConnell once said of Sen. Elizabeth Warren after a bid to silence her failed: nevertheless, she persisted.
DiZoglio didn’t back down, and now Question 1 — State Auditor’s Authority to Audit the Legislature is on the ballot for the Nov. 5 election.
As Mariano & Co. double down on keeping the Legislature away from prying eyes, citing the state’s constitution that allows it to set the rules for its own conduct and affairs, one major point is missing.
Like it or not, the Legislature is accountable to the people who voted for the lawmakers who preside in it. It’s Massachusetts taxpayers who fund the policies and projects they vote on, and it’s high time the public got to see how the sausage is made. Not behind closed doors, not in secret committee meetings, but in the open.
Mariano has slammed DiZoglio’s bid as a power move, and in one respect he’s right. It’s a power move for the taxpayers and voters of Massachusetts, who deserve a Legislature that doesn’t just talk about transparency for others, but for itself.
The Boston Herald endorses a Yes vote on Question 1.
