Coalition weighs launching ballot initiative campaigns to reform state legislature
Photo | Courtesy of Sam Drysdale, State House News Service
Act on Mass Executive Director Scotia Hille speaks on a panel next to former GOP party chair Jennifer Nassour at a Coalition To Reform Our Legislature event on Tuesday.
Looking to keep pressure on what they deem an untransparent and ineffective Legislature, a coalition of unlikely allies is considering whether to bring two "good governance" measures straight to voters via the ballot.
The coalition of former lawmakers, activists, and civic groups gathered Tuesday at Church on the Hill, across from the State House, for a “people’s hearing” to spotlight reform bills they say state legislators have ignored.
The Coalition to Reform Our Legislature is backing two proposals. One bill (HD 4303 / SD 1301) would reform the legislative stipend system, which the group argues currently gives leadership too much control over lawmakers' compensation. The bill would tie stipends to performance "rather than loyalty," they say.
The coalition's Scotia Hill of progressive transparency group Act on Mass says the coalition was unable to find a legislator willing to file the bill in a by-request manner, which is common and would have put the proposal into the legislative pipeline. She said that raises questions about the right to free petition in Massachusetts.
"Legislators in Massachusetts are financially dependent on leadership, and dependency breeds deference. Legislators wait to be told what to do. Acting openly and independently risks losing significant income," said Jonathan Hecht, a former Democratic representative from Watertown.
Legislators all receive the same base pay, currently $82,000 a year, but senators and representatives who are appointed to various leadership positions — which is the majority of them — receive additional stipends of an between $8,000 and $112,000 tacked on to their yearly pay, he said.
"In 1995 there were 38 stipends in the Senate and 40 in the House. Today, there are 74 in the Senate and 109 in the House," Hecht said. "As a result, chamber leaders now control stipends worth over $5 million a year. In no other Legislature in the country do legislative leaders have so much public money to give out in extra pay to favor legislators. And in no other Legislature in the country do legislators receive such a large share of their pay that's directly from their chamber leader."
The compensation policy creates a system that is "not tied in any way to performance," said Michael Widmer, longtime former president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and is "clearly a means of control by legislative leaders over the rank and file."
A second bill (SD 2614/ H 3892), filed by request through Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier, calls for the creation of independent legislative research and fiscal analysis bureaus. Supporters say the new office would help lawmakers craft data-driven policy and may reduce reliance on lobbyists and other special interests.
The Legislature used to have an independent research bureau, which was defunded in 1992 in the name of eliminating waste.
"While one would think that the fundamental job of legislators is to write and pass legislation, rank and file legislators do not have sufficient staff who can be relied upon to expertly draft bills," said Jeanne Kempthorne, a former prosecutor and one of the co-founders of the coalition. "Disempowered legislators and overburdened staff focus instead on local earmarks and constituent services, leaving the formulation of major bills to leadership and lobbyists. No shock, then, that little of statewide significance gets done."
She pointed to lawmakers' surprise in 2022 when an old law called 62F triggered tax rebates and disrupted their plans to cut taxes, as income surtax revenue estimates that she said are "largely unreliable" as examples of why an independent committee focused on legislative research and fiscal analysis would be valuable.
"We want them to better understand the legislation that they're voting on without relying on that political leadership or the lobbyist influence," said Jennifer Nassaur, former Massachusetts Republican Party chair and current party finance chair.
The coalition criticized both the House and Senate for failing to hold formal hearings on the measures, despite the bills being filed in line with legislative rules.
Speaker Ron Mariano's office did not respond to a question about whether the bills would receive hearings at all this legislative session. A Senate President Karen Spilka spokesperson declined to comment.
"One of the questions that we are considering is whether to take one of these, one or both of these issues to the ballot," said Jay Kaufman, former representative and Revenue Committee chairman. "There's some significant consequences to doing that, but we're actively weighing it."
He joked that he expects they'd "get the same 72% that the auditor got last year, and the same greeting across the street" referring to Question 1 on the 2024 ballot, which 72% of voters cast ballots in favor of auditing the Legislature.
Auditor Diana DiZoglio's transparency message has been popular with both Democrat and Republican voters, but lawmakers have resisted complying with an audit by her office through raising constitutional concerns.
"But if we decide to do that, it's in part to change laws where we can, and in part to advance the public conversation that needs advancing," Kaufman said.
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