Beacon Hill is on the ballot this year — 9 times
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Deehan here with Spill of the Hill, my column unraveling Massachusetts politics.
Few Massachusetts lawmakers have any competition in this year's election, but voters can still voice their dissatisfaction with the Legislature through the long list of ballot questions they need to weigh in on.
Why it matters: The initiative process lets citizens act when lawmakers won't.
- Since so few have the opportunity to vote against an incumbent, voters can hold them accountable nine times this November.
Ballot questions are coming at voters at a rate not seen in decades. Each of the nine lands squarely on the Legislature's turf: taxes, housing, transparency, elections and more.
The big picture: Two mechanisms are at work.
- Questions 1–8 are proposed laws.
- The House and Senate held hearings but didn't enact them, leaving supporters to gather signatures and get the questions on the ballot.
- Question 9 is a referendum to undo the 2024 firearms law the Legislature passed by wide margins.
State of play: Some lawmakers reject the suggestion that legislative inaction amounts to dysfunction.
- A committee majority recommended no action on Question 1, the proposal to bring the governor and Legislature under the public records law.
- The committee that said no cited separation-of-powers concerns raised in an April 27 Supreme Judicial Court advisory opinion.
Advocates see the problem differently.
- Tom McKeever, who represents public counsel employees, said state attorneys spent five or six legislative cycles unsuccessfully seeking collective bargaining rights, according to the State House News Service.
- That proposal is now Question 2.
Between the lines: The debate over ballot questions is ruffling feathers on Beacon Hill.
- Rep. Mike Day argued that an unsuccessful proposal doesn't necessarily mean the lawmaking process is broken.
- And House Speaker Ron Mariano has called the initiative process a "whole system fraught with peril."
By the numbers: Ballot campaigns received more than $21 million in contributions and in-kind donations this year through August. It's organized special interests, not just frustrated residents, who are funding the boom in ballot questions.
What's next: Passage isn't the end of the story. A positive result at the ballot creates a law, and the General Court can repeal or amend it as much as they want.
- Oftentimes the Legislature has to weigh in anyway since so many of the broadly outlined ballot measures require additional decisions to implement.
The bottom line: November's ballot gives Massachusetts voters a way to shape state policy and give lawmakers a piece of their minds — even if they can't replace the lawmakers themselves.