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Date: 7/5/2023
WILLIAMSBURG — On June 28, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio paid a visit to the Anne T. Dunphy School in Williamsburg to talk about issues that impact Massachusetts and how her office is working to mitigate those issues.
As the chief accountability officer, DiZoglio works to conduct audits, investigations, and studies of all state entities to promote accountability and transparency. The job requires the evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness in state operations with the goal of creating government reform where necessary.
According to Matt Barron of Indivisible Williamsburg, this was the first time in almost four decades a state auditor visited the Hampshire County Hilltowns.
DiZoglio beat out Republican Anthony Amore for the state auditor position back in the 2022 elections. Prior to winning that race, she served six years in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and two years in the state Senate.
While a part of the Massachusetts State House, DiZoglio exposed the use of non-disclosure agreements to cover up sexual harassment and became known as an advocate for equity, transparency and accountability. She ran for the state auditor position because she found many holes in the legislative process at the state level.
“There were a lot of good intentions and well-intentioned initiatives that would take place, but they would get rushed through,” DiZoglio said of the legislative process. “The public hearing process was not utilized the way it was supposed to be utilized.”
During her visit to Williamsburg, DiZoglio focused on three particular issues the state auditor’s office is working on at the moment: overseeing and reforming transportation requirements, reforming payments in-lieu of taxes on state-owned land and auditing the state legislature.
Part of overseeing transportation requirements includes monitoring and auditing the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which has experienced several problems over the past few years including safety protection concerns, delayed track maintenance, staffing issues and much more.
“We should all care about the fact that our tax dollars are being spent on a system that continually fails other worker families who need reliable transportation so they can get to their healthcare appointments, take their kids to school, get to work or buy groceries,” DiZoglio said. “They should be able to feel safe. They should be able to not have to wonder…whether or not their train is going to catch on fire that day or if they’re going to be in peril in some way.”
To combat these issues, DiZoglio said that her office announced that they have been conducting a performance and safety audit of the MBTA over the past couple of months, and she encouraged people to let them know if they have any added information that can help with the audit.
“We’re hoping that [the audit] shines a light on some of the areas that need to be remedied,” DiZoglio said. “We will be able to help our legislators and the administration to better be able to identify areas to invest in, for example.”
She also announced that her office is conducting an audit of the state legislature, a process that is common in other states like Connecticut, but according to DiZoglio, there has been some pushback from state legislators as well as others who are afraid to speak in favor of the audit in case of retaliation.
“Not all state representatives and senators are opposed to this, but certainly I can attest to the fact that legislators are absolutely concerned that if they speak out in favor of this that they will be retaliated against,” DiZoglio said. “And that may have consequences for the communities that they represent.”
According to DiZoglio, the Massachusetts legislature is the only state agency that has refused to be audited by the state.
“I have expressed that this is a matter of routine for all other state agencies,” DiZoglio said. “We’re auditing the governor’s office now and we just finished an audit of the judiciary. This is not something that is uncommon.”
In all, 64 different agencies across the state are being audited, and according to DiZoglio, state agencies must be audited every three years by law.
Beyond those statewide initiatives, DiZoglio said that there is a Division of Local Mandates in her office that looks at specific issues relating to Western Mass.
DiZoglio specifically talked with Williamsburg residents about Hilltown issues relating to the underfunding of regional schools and reforming those payments in-lieu of taxes on state land.
“There are a lot of state forests and parks out here,” said DiZoglio. “But Western Mass. is not being compensated fairly and equitably when it comes to those PILOT payments being made.”
To accommodate these issues, DiZoglio said that the Division of Local Mandates drafted a Rural rescue Plan report which details the need for PILOT reform and a transportation funding reform formula.
DiZoglio said that the PILOT formula is based on property value while the transportation funding formula is based on population, employment and mileage. Because Western Massachusetts does not have as large a population, DiZoglio said the transportation funding is not as equitable, despite the fact that there is a ton of mileage.
“There’s this cycle that happens in Western Mass. where, if you lose people, you get less money, which causes people to leave, and then you lose money,” DiZoglio. “This cycle just keeps going and it needs to stop.”
As a way to stop the cycle, the auditor’s office is recommending that the statewide transportation funding formula be reformed so that mileage counts for a larger percentage so Western Mass. sees more of that funding.
With regard to the PILOT payments, DiZoglio said that the state-owned forests and land located in Western Massachusetts are suffering from a lack of revenue, which means the communities that surround this land are also suffering from a dearth of revenue.
“As wonderful as these [forests] are, the communities that they are located in lose out on revenue significantly because you can’t generate property taxes on that land because the state owns it,” DiZoglio said. “That’s why you’re supposed to get payments in-lieu of taxes your community otherwise wouldn’t be able to generate. And when those payments aren’t actually up to par with taxes you would have received, schools suffer, elderly programs suffer, public safety suffers, you’re snow and ice removal budget suffers.”
Another Western Mass. issue, according to DiZoglio, is the ubiquity of dilapidated municipal buildings across the board, which she hopes to address by advocating for a better process to get funding for these public buildings.
“When it comes to these other public buildings, there’s no way to guarantee a process for funding to come back to help our communities besides calling legislators and hoping that the leadership at the state house shines a light on your community,” DiZoglio said. “That’s not an equitable process…we need to make sure we have equity in our infrastructure.”
DiZoglio said people are free to contact her office with information about an issue happening in their community and she also added that she is open to conducting individual meetings with people.
Readers may also follow information on state audits by visiting the Office of the State Auditor website: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/office-of-the-state-auditor.