MARCH 19, 2026 | FREE
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EDITION EAST LONGMEADOW
Council receives Center Town District rezoning visualization After months of work and assessment, the town can visualize what the zoning may have looked like for the proposed Center Town District bylaw if the language wasn’t withdrawn in December 2025.
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AROUND THE AREA
Oliveira pushes to update, expand Heart Law for police State Sen. Jake Oliveira is making a push to update Massachusetts’ 75-year-old Heart Law, standing beside 400 police officers who don’t qualify for its benefits.
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DiZoglio continues legislative audit push By Sarah Heinonen
sheinonen@thereminder.com
SPRINGFIELD — The 2026 state election may not be until the fall, but candidates are already making the rounds across the commonwealth to introduce themselves and make their case to voters. Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio may be running unopposed, but that does not mean she is without opponents. On a recent trip to Springfield, she sat down with Reminder Publishing to discuss the role of the auditor and the controversy she has become embroiled in. DiZoglio said most residents in the state do not know what the state auditor does. “I’m not the IRS,” she said, referring to the federal Internal Revenue Service. “I don’t audit individual people.” Instead, she said the auditor reviews the expenditures of the state government. She said that for the first time in decades, the auditor’s office completed audits of all departments in the executive branch, as required every three years by law. While DiZoglio may have auditing the executive branch down to a science, efforts to audit the state Legislature have created controversy and litigation. DiZoglio has plenty of experience with the Legislature. She served six years as a state representative beginning in 2013, after which she was elected to the state Senate until she was elected to the office of auditor in 2022.
DiZoglio said she decided to run for auditor to use what she had learned about state government to ensure Massachusetts operates with transparency and equity. DiZoglio’s platform at that time included reinstating the ability to audit the Legislature. In 2024, DiZoglio delivered on that campaign promise when a ballot question she championed was passed by 72% of voters. She said she intends to review state contracts, settlements and receipts to see how the state is spending tax dollars, but the leadership in the Legislature, namely Senate President Karen Spilka and her counterpart in the state House of Representatives, Speaker Ronald Mariano, argue that it would violate the separation of powers as laid out in the state’s constitution. DiZoglio said that argument is “complete baloney,” because it conflicts with history. She said auditing the Legislature was commonplace until the 1990s when House of Representatives Speaker Charles Flaherty blocked Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci from auditing him. DiZoglio pointed out that Flaherty later admitted to conflicts of interest and was convicted of felony tax evasion. “If you are refusing an audit, what are you hiding?” DiZoglio asked. DiZoglio has been pursuing litigation against the Legislature, Mariano and Spilka to force them to comply with an audit. Attor-
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio speaks at the 2025 MassDem State Convention held Sept. 13, 2025, at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield. Republican file photo
See DIZOGLIO on page 4
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