Candidates for auditor jostle to define their positions
Hopefuls clash over a gas tax increase, slip into Spanish briefly
The Democrats running for state auditor clashed in a lively GBH debate Monday that featured dueling demonstrations of their fluency in Spanish, barbs traded over a gas tax increase, and one charge of male condescension.
State Senator Diana DiZoglio, a Methuen Democrat who has served in the Legislature for 10 years, is competing with Chris Dempsey, a former assistant secretary of transportation under then-governor Deval Patrick and director of the advocacy coalition, Transportation for Massachusetts.
Both candidates said they support the Fair Share Amendment, a November ballot question that asks voters whether to impose a 4 percent tax on income over $1 million to raise money for transportation and schools.
But the candidates differed in their approaches to the recent news that the state may refund up to $3 billion to taxpayers under a law intended to limit state revenue growth to the growth of wages and salaries. House Speaker Ronald Mariano last week accused Governor Charlie Baker of keeping lawmakers in the dark about the likelihood of triggering the refund, which derailed their plans to pass a sweeping tax relief package at the frenetic close of their legislative session.
“The Legislature should have never waited until the last minute to take up an economic development bill in the first place,” DiZoglio said. She said the auditor can weigh in on quarterly revenue reports and suggested that if she were in office, “this might not have caught us by surprise.”
But Dempsey pushed back, saying that DiZoglio should already have been aware of the tax cap as a senator. “It was the Legislature’s job to catch this. They didn’t catch it,” he said.
Pressed by moderator Jim Braude on whether they would tweak the language of that tax cap — so that refunds would be returned to taxpayers more equitably — DiZoglio said she would be open to it, while Dempsey said he would prefer an economic development bill. “If I had been in the Legislature, which I was not, I would have caught it in time,” he asserted.
“If my opponent was in the Legislature,” DiZoglio countered, “he would be fighting for a 25-cent gas tax on working families right now, and that, to me, is unacceptable.”
Dempsey acknowledged that he has long supported a gas tax increase and that, as a transportation advocate, his job was to identify the needs for resources. “That’s exactly the job of the auditor,” he said.
Asked what the state auditor could do to help close the racial wealth gap, Dempsey said he would examine contracting and the investment of federal stimulus dollars. His plan embraced recommendations put forth by groups including the NAACP and the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, “so that we have equity metrics to determine how those dollars are being spent and if they’re actually making our communities more fair, more equitable, and addressing that wealth gap.”
DiZoglio noted she was born to a 17-year-old single mom, raised in Methuen and Lawrence, and demonstrated how she’d learned to speak Spanish to connect with her neighbors. She said she would audit state agencies to determine whether they are complying with diversity goals and pointed to a Massport model as an example.
Dempsey countered that the person who designed the Massport model is a supporter of his campaign, and he challenged DiZoglio to discuss it.
“I do think it’s a good model. I’m not sure the senator completely understands how it works,” he charged. Then he began speaking in Spanish.
DiZoglio retorted that she is chair of the Senate small business committee and has worked with the Black Economic Council on accountability at the state’s supplier diversity office.
“So I understand very well,” DiZoglio said, “though I am used to men like my opponent up on Beacon Hill trying to discredit the work of women.”
Asked to respond, Dempsey doubled down, saying, “I didn’t hear an explanation about how the Massport model works.”
The debate aired on 89.7 FM and on GBH Monday night. It can be viewed on GBH’s YouTube channel. The winner of the Sept. 6 Democratic primary for auditor will face Republican Anthony Amore in the Nov. 6 general election.