Legislative insanity

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio won’t need to look for ammunition in support of her ballot question to audit the Legislature. Legislative leaders gave her more than enough fodder in the latest hurry up, wait and fail conclusion to the session.

But even if her proposal passes state constitutional muster, it could not address the heart of the conflict — inter-chamber rivalries, personality and power clashes.

The signs of the latest failure were apparent even before the session started in January 2023. The two branches have been unable to establish joint rules since 2021 and at one point in this two-year term the Legislature’s Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy couldn’t even agree on holding joint hearings — forcing witnesses to repeat their testimony, sometimes on different days.

Inter-branch loyalty and rivalries are strong. So too are personality clashes, which can lead to stalemates — such as the one in 1999 when former Speaker Tom Finneran and the late Senate President Tom Birmingham were forced to use a Statehouse balcony in the fall to negotiate a months-late budget their Ways and Means chairs could not resolve.

It prompted Barbara Anderson, the late executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation to lament:

“I’d say this is the worst I’ve seen in my 25 years as a lobbyist. In the past you could talk to people outside of leadership who could make a difference. Now there’s no one to talk to. It’s not that there’s no level playing field. There’s no playing field at all. They’re just following the leadership.”

Ah, the good old days.

Under terms of the ballot question, the auditor would be able to review not only hiring and spending within the chambers, but how they appoint committees, adopt or suspend rules, and their policies and procedures.

But even if the law allows the auditor to review the practices of another constitutional branch of government, does the office have the right to review how the Speaker and Senate President are elected by the membership?

And are the findings enforceable beyond requiring the agency under review to provide a written response? To the House and Senate Ways and Means committees.

While Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell approved the question’s appearance on the ballot, her office said current law does not afford the auditor the right to oversee the Legislature:

“The SAO is a creation of the Legislature and is vested with the authority granted to it by the Legislature. … That authority does not include the power to audit the Legislature itself over the Legislature’s objection. This conclusion is supported by the statutory text, its legislative history, judicial interpretation of similar statutes, and the historical record.”

More significantly, it noted:

…should the initiative become law, we may need to consider whether, and that extent to which constitutional limitations affect how the law would apply.”

It needs to be duly noted there is a history of personality and power clashes between DiZoglio, who was a maverick challenging leadership when she served first in the House and then the Senate.

House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, after trading barbs earlier this week about last-minutes items sent over to their respective chambers, are now insisting much of the unfinished business can be resolved before lawmakers formally end the session on the first Wednesday in January.

For the most part that’s true, except for an economic development bill that requires a roll call vote because it authorizes the state to sell bonds to pay for proposals. And those can only be held during what formal sessions, which under legislative rules end on July 31 (or more recently August 1) in even-numbered years.

One of the key things I learned as a Statehouse reporter is that rules are made to be suspended. But that becomes much harder during the informal sessions scheduled between now and January, when only one person can gum up the works by a parliamentary move to doubt the presence of a quorum.

Republicans successfully used that tactic to slow down a supplemental budget dealing with the shelter crisis last fall. Until leaders told members to return and finish that piece of business.

Lawmakers can break off pieces of economic development bill that don’t require funding. And there is precedent for moving major pieces of legislation, like the marijuana reform law rewrite and a criminal justice bill, during informal sessions.

But no law can end the biggest issues facing this dysfunctional Legislature, which confirms Albert Einstein’s famous contention that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”