State Auditor walking to Wellesley to promote Ballot Question 1

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has begun a 141-mile “Walking for Sunshine” trek across the state to encourage people to vote “yes” on Ballot Question 1, which seeks to allow DiZoglio’s office to audit the legislature. She’s slated to stop at the Lockheart Restaurant (102 Central St.) in Wellesley Square on Friday, Oct. 10 at 6pm, and the public is invited to attend.

Proponents of voting “yes” say granting the State Auditor such authority will shed more transparency on the state’s senate and house operations, which have been criticized for everything from how earmarks are doled out to the pace of passing legislation.

Opponents argue that the legislative branch already requires independent audits of its finances and that allowing the State Auditor to dive in would be overstepping the boundary between the executive and legislative branches.

A report on the ballot question was prepared by a majority of the members of the Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, a committee of the Massachusetts General Court, and it concludes that “The statutory change would undermine the well-contemplated balance of constitutional powers between the branches of government as established by the framers of the Constitution of the Commonwealth.” Wellesley State Rep. Alice Hanlon Peisch is among those legislative leaders whose names appear on the report.