The Massachusetts State Auditor oversees how state agencies and programs operate by conducting performance, financial, and technical audits. These reviews assess whether government operations are efficient, transparent, and accountable, helping improve performance and ensure taxpayer money is used properly.
First, it is critical to complete the legislative audit and continue pursuing accountability through the ongoing litigation associated with that work. Ensuring that audit findings lead to meaningful follow-through is essential to strengthening transparency and public trust.
Second, we will continue focusing on audits of high-risk agencies and entities—including the MBTA, the Department of Children and Families, and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education—to identify opportunities not only to safeguard taxpayer dollars, but also to improve services for residents, particularly our most vulnerable populations.
Recent audits and oversight work have highlighted areas where state laws should be modernized to improve efficiency, strengthen accountability, and enhance the Auditor’s ability to prevent waste and fraud. One example, which we discussed during budget hearings earlier this year, involves outdated language in Massachusetts General Laws that has limited our office’s ability to provide additional oversight over childcare voucher spending. Updating statutory language in targeted areas like this can improve transparency and ensure public funds are being administered as intended. More broadly, closing these types of oversight loopholes is essential to increasing accountability and protecting taxpayer resources.
Our office’s Division of Local Mandates exists specifically to review concerns raised by cities and towns regarding potential unfunded mandates. The division evaluates whether a law, regulation, or requirement constitutes an unfunded mandate and reports its findings back to the requesting municipality.
One meaningful improvement would be to move this review process earlier—evaluating proposed legislative language before it becomes law rather than after implementation. Conducting these assessments proactively would provide lawmakers with better information upfront and help reduce unintended financial burdens on local communities.
I spend very little time focused on State House politics and believe my work is most effective when it remains grounded in the experiences and concerns of the People we serve. There is greater value in spending time with working residents who want stronger accountability and better government outcomes.
The fact that the Auditor is elected—not appointed—provides important independence and allows our office to stand behind audit findings and recommendations, even when those conclusions may be unpopular on Beacon Hill. My approach is simple: people first, accountability always.
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