{"id":90,"date":"2026-05-29T12:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:35:35","slug":"senates-new-audit-compliance-raises-more-questions-than-it-answers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=90","title":{"rendered":"Senate\u2019s new audit compliance raises more questions than it answers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

THE TELENOVELA <\/mark><\/strong>that is Auditor Diana DiZoglio versus the Legislature introduced several more twists Thursday, with an attempted d\u00e9tente that does not actually resolve underlying disagreements and a new wedge dividing previously allied lawmakers.<\/p>\n

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Senators voted to fulfill a narrow request for documents DiZoglio made nearly 17 months ago, saying they feel more comfortable doing so after the auditor agreed to limit the scope of a related lawsuit against the Legislature. Yet the maneuver is not a neat resolution to the all-consuming political drama: Top Senate Democrats insisted the chamber would provide records voluntarily as a gesture of \u201cgood government,\u201d while reserving their right to argue that the voter-approved law empowering the auditor to probe the Legislature is unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

Democrats expected that all 40 senators would back the idea, but six senators instead opposed it, arguing that the compliance does not go far enough to solve the broader constitutional conundrum.<\/p>\n

Further complicating the outlook, top House Democrats criticized the Senate\u2019s resolution, putting the two branches \u2014 who for years have set aside their usual institutional rivalry to present a unified front of DiZoglio opposition \u2014 at odds on a key topic heading into the busiest stretch of the two-year legislative term.<\/p>\n

The biggest questions, it seems, will not be answered until another day.<\/p>\n

Thirty-three senators supported a resolution pledging to transmit to DiZoglio\u2019s office four categories of records she sought in a January 6, 2025, letter: recent Senate budgets, recent audits of the Senate, any transactions related to the \u201cbalance forward line item\u201d used to float money from one fiscal year to another, and a \u201clisting of all monetary settlement agreements\u201d the Senate reached with current or former employees in a four-year span.<\/p>\n

Senate leaders decided against providing any of that information when DiZoglio first sought it or in the nearly year and a half since then. But they said Thursday that recent developments before the Supreme Judicial Court swayed them toward disclosure.<\/p>\n

DiZoglio sought to force the Legislature\u2019s compliance with her audit through litigation, and her case got mired in a feud with Attorney General Andrea Campbell about who would represent the auditor and how the matter would unfold. During oral arguments earlier this month, DiZoglio\u2019s hand-picked attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, agreed to keep the case focused only on the four points highlighted in the January 2025, letter, not other topics the auditor has publicly or privately said she\u2019d also like to examine.<\/p>\n

That development \u201cgave 40 members of the Senate a level of comfort\u201d that the audit has a more defined scope, Sen. Paul Feeney of Foxborough told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment has now changed,\u201d he said in a press briefing before the vote. \u201cInstead of broad requests and statements and letters and all of that, it has been focused down in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the agreement to narrow the field essentially applies only to what will be litigated. DiZoglio has been clear that she has no interest in curtailing her authority or the scope of her work, saying last week that she intends to \u201cgo back and ask for additional records.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how the Senate would respond to future audit requests, Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington said, \u201cWe can\u2019t answer that question right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a court decision. We are responding to that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t imagine or predict what the auditor is going to ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeney and Friedman told reporters that the four categories of information targeted by DiZoglio in that January 6, 2025, letter are public, even the list of financial settlements with Senate employees.<\/p>\n

The resolution adopted Thursday declares that the Senate would share that information \u201cvoluntarily, but does not concede that it may be audited\u201d under the law voters approved in 2024 \u201cwithout violating the Constitution of the Commonwealth.\u201d It also emphasizes that senators may still object to any future audit or request for additional documents.<\/p>\n

Asked if the resolution should be read as the Senate acknowledging the auditor\u2019s constitutional right to audit the Legislature, Friedman replied, \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf people think we\u2019re messing around with the constitutionality issue, I would ask them to look at the federal government right now and look at what\u2019s happening when you allow the rule of law to take second place to somebody\u2019s desires or whims,\u201d she said, invoking President Trump\u2019s bombastic approach in Washington, DC. \u201cI\u2019m not equating that with her, but I\u2019m just saying the constitutionality issue is really, really salient at this particular moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n

All five Republican senators and Democrat Sen. Mark Montigny voted against the resolution. In a speech from the chamber floor, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said he appreciated the new interest in partial compliance but wanted his colleagues to ask the SJC to weigh the audit law\u2019s constitutionality \u2014 something the Senate did earlier this year over a pair of proposed ballot questions targeting the Legislature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of this body to request the opinion of the court has led to prolonged months of folks agonizing over the constitutionality of this issue, delay in the transmission of documents, delay in the initiation of an audit that was not requested, but demanded by 72 percent of the voters of the Commonwealth,\u201d Tarr said, referring to the margin by which the 2024 measure empowering the auditor passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cReluctantly, I will not be supporting the resolution, not because I don\u2019t want to see these documents move forward but because there\u2019s a greater issue here and it needs to be addressed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For different reasons, Senate Democrats also failed to win over their counterparts in the House. Moments before the vote, House Speaker Ron Mariano wrote an email to all representatives signaling his opposition to the Senate\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing extensive conversations with the Senate about this issue over the past few weeks, House leadership concluded that a resolution would not be the appropriate method of affirming our legislative prerogative as a coequal branch of government \u2014 nor would it allow us to address future inquiries or resolve the endless legal disputes that have come to define the audit ballot question,\u201d Mariano wrote.<\/p>\n

Instead, he hinted at vague plans for a more comprehensive legislative package that would be inspired by both the audit fight and a ballot question that could go before voters this fall \u2014 also backed by DiZoglio \u2014 that would subject the Legislature to the state\u2019s public records law. Mariano said the House will work with \u201cleading transparency experts to craft comprehensive legislation that will provide long-term solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Mariano spokesperson said the Quincy Democrat intends to bring that bill forward for a vote this session, which has about two months remaining for new major business.<\/p>\n

Before the surprise vote in the Senate, DiZoglio had been intending to refile her lawsuit against the House and Senate more clearly tailored to the four areas where she wants to start her probe. It\u2019s not clear if she will still do so, or target only the House in litigation, or take another approach entirely.<\/p>\n

DiZoglio criticized the Senate vote, arguing that it amounted to taking a stance that the chamber \u201cwill not cooperate\u201d with the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really sad that Senate leadership is so detached from reality that they think anyone believes they\u2019ve suddenly agreed to give me these specific records for any reason other than that the court is about to lay down the law, again, and order them to obey the people\u2019s wishes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One thing is clear: there is still no agreement on whether the law voters approved granting her expanded audit powers passes constitutional muster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat question on overarching constitutionality may get answered at some point. It may or may not,\u201d Feeney said. \u201cIt\u2019s up to whoever brings suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more State regulators are weighing how much to crack down on leaky gas pipes<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another series of twists arrived in the audit-the-Legislature saga as the Senate voted to provide some documents while insisting that their move in no way concedes that Diana DiZoglio has a constitutional right to probe lawmakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":89,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state-government"],"yoast_head":"\nSenate\u2019s new audit compliance raises more questions than it answers - Worcester Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worcestermovingreport.com\/?p=90\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senate\u2019s new audit compliance raises more questions than it answers - 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