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Commentary
It's time to audit the Mass. Legislature
This is not an easy time to live in Massachusetts. The cost of housing is so expensive that prospective renters are bidding against each other. Road congestion is worsening as one catastrophe after the next befalls the MBTA. School buildings are sauna-like amid rising temperatures. There's a serious opioid epidemic. And last June, our health care costs became so severe it prompted state regulators to issue a strong message to Massachusetts lawmakers: You need to fix this now.
So how is our Legislature responding to these simultaneous crises?
The facts paint a disturbing picture. Study after study finds that Massachusetts has one of the least efficient, least productive state governments in the United States.
By the end of May, only 10 bills had been passed by our elected officials, and most of those bills were for ultra-specific matters like nixing the age limit for a Boston police officer.
If you’re wondering why our lawmakers are so lacking in urgency and initiative, it’s hard to say, because Massachusetts also has one of the least transparent state governments in the nation.
The state Senate, state House, and the governor’s office routinely exempt themselves from public record requests, and even basic procedural matters like voting are often veiled from the public eye. In February, Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven (D-Somerville) suggested that a list of recent committee votes be published on the Legislature’s website. Her proposal was quickly shot down by her colleagues in an anonymized voice vote.
If our elected officials build walls around themselves and squander precious time in office what’s the point of holding elections in the first place?
All of this is unbecoming of a state that fancies itself an exemplar of good government and progress. If our elected officials build walls around themselves and squander precious time in office what’s the point of holding elections in the first place?
Diana DiZoglio, our new state auditor, may have identified a crucial first step toward understanding why our state government is so broken, and how to fix it.
As our auditor, DiZoglio is tasked with conducting performance reviews of state entities and contractors to determine how they’re spending our tax dollars and what could be done to improve their functionality. Essentially, the auditor’s job is to make our government work better for us. And during her campaign, DiZoglio said that if elected, she would pursue an audit of the Massachusetts Legislature. (It’s worth noting that DiZoglio is a former state representative and senator herself and has seen the inner workings of the Legislature first-hand.)
This internal review would serve as a public spotlight on how the Legislature conducts business. DiZoglio and her team would review how the body amends rules, makes budgeting and hiring decisions, forms committees — and perhaps most pertinent of all — how the two chambers treat pending legislation.
This stuff matters because it allows us to better understand how our legislators do their jobs and whether or not they’re passing laws that make life better for Massachusetts residents. The transparency that an audit would bring could also make it harder for the Legislature’s leadership (who are not elected to those roles by the public) to entrench themselves and expand their own power.
We’ve all heard the old story of then-state Rep. Ed Markey having his desk moved into the hallway of the State House, for the terrible sin of having supported a court reform bill that the leadership didn’t like. It’s a prime example of a culture that’s long been more in line with a fraternity house than a state government.
The Legislature has been subject to probes by the state auditor’s office before. It’s just that the last one happened in 1922 ...
So, it’s hardly surprising that House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) and Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) are refusing to cooperate with any investigation by DiZoglio’s office. In a harshly worded letter to DiZoglio, Mariano argued that auditing the legislature lacks precedent and “runs contrary to multiple, explicit provisions of the Massachusetts Constitution.”
But Mariano’s logic doesn’t hold up. The Legislature has been subject to probes by the state auditor’s office before. It’s just that the last one happened in 1922 — which only seems to strengthen the case for a new audit today.
On the legal front, Attorney General Andrea Campbell is considering whether or not to represent the auditor’s office, which would likely force leadership to comply with the investigation. In the event that Campbell declines to step in, DiZoglio is already executing a Plan B: gathering signatures to allow the audit to become a 2024 ballot question.
Amidst all the crises currently facing Massachusetts our legislators’ highest priority this year has been a just-struck “bipartisan” tax cut agreement — the lion’s share of which will apply to the state’s richest households, via capital gains and estate tax reforms. This deal, celebrated by Mariano, Spilka and Gov. Healey, was reached less than a year after Massachusetts residents voted to raise taxes on the same wealthy households through the Fair Share Amendment, which would allow increased funding for public services. Just like leadership elections and many other legislative affairs, these tax cuts were debated and finalized in private meetings, inaccessible to the voting public.
By exposing our Legislature’s inner workings, we might be able to force them to better represent our interests.
