Increasing media coverage of the Legislature’s dysfunction underscores the importance of CROL’s reform efforts. Here is a list of and links to over 50 recent articles highlighting the problems:
Act on Mass Saturday Scoop | Act on Mass, October 26, 2024 | Scotia Hille
Act on Mass recounts the latest updates in the fight for increased accountability and action in the Legislature.
Massachusetts Legislature operates in the dark. Is anyone shocked? | The Boston Globe, October 25, 2024 | The Editorial Board
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio released the audit of the Legislature, revealing Massachusetts to be one of the least transparent and least accessible state legislatures in the country.
Poll shows growing frustration with Legislature | CommonWealth Beacon, September 23, 2024 | Gintautas Dumcius
In a recent poll, nearly half of likely voters disapproved of the job lawmakers are doing.
In narrow Decker win, a pointed message to her and Legislature | CommonWealth Beacon, September 21, 2024 | Jonathan Cohn
Despite major incumbency advantages, Rep. Marjorie Decker barely survived her reelection bid against challenger Evan McKay, who called out the Legislature’s dysfunction.
Why can’t the Legislature do its job? | CommonWealth Beacon, September 7, 2024 | Jeanne Kempthorne
CROL Steering Committee member Jeanne Kempthorne describes her failed efforts over two sessions to get the Legislature to simply correct a poorly-written statute intended to protect children from electronic surveillance.
Cambridge primary presents a rare challenge to Beacon Hill status quo | The Boston Globe, August 29, 2024 | Letters to the Editor
Massachusetts residents write in to react to the Globe’s endorsement of Cambridge incumbent state Representative Marjorie Decker over challenger Evan MacKay.
If they can’t lead, why should our legislative leaders keep their exalted posts? | The Boston Globe, August 26, 2024 | The Editorial Board
House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have maintained their leadership positions in the Legislature despite years of failure.
The compelling case for Massachusetts legislative reform | CommonWealth Beacon, August 15, 2024 | Jim Stergios
Solutions to Massachusetts’s broken legislative process include shortening the amount of time committees can review and act on legislation, and adhering to basic timelines.
On Beacon Hill, rules seem made to be twisted, if not broken | CommonWealth Beacon, August 14, 2024 | Margaret Monsell
Rules in the Legislature are often just suggestions in practice.
The wrong way to boost legislative pay | The Boston Globe, August 12, 2024 | The Editorial Board
‘Leadership’ stipends are not the right way to boost legislative salaries.
What are our lawmakers doing to represent us? | The Berkshire Eagle, August 8, 2024 | Letters to the Editor
Readers write in to support the August 3rd editorial on the dysfunction in the State House.
Late scramble illustrates ‘need for reforms’ | The Berkshire Eagle, August 8, 2024 | Chris Lisinski
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said the chaos of the end of the legislative session shows the need for reforms in the Legislature.
In the Massachusetts Legislature, nearly everyone is a leader. Just look at their paychecks. | The Boston Globe, August 5, 2024 | Emma Platoff and Laura Crimaldi
A majority of members of the Massachusetts Legislature receive an additional stipend known as leadership pay.
We’ll pay a steep price if climate bill doesn’t get done | CommonWealth Beacon, August 3, 2024 | Joseph Curtatone
Continued inaction on climate in the Massachusetts Legisture will have disastrous consequences for renewable energy, emission reduction targets, and more.
The people have spoken: Beacon Hill requires transparency | The Boston Globe, August 5, 2024 | Letters to the Editor
Massachusetts residents write in to share their frustrations with the Legislature’s inaction.
This is (still) no way to legislate | The Berkshire Eagle, August 3, 2024 | Our Opinion
The Massachusetts Legislature was only able to pass three of the 12 bills they attempted to ram through in the final hours of the session.
Why are so many amendments being withdrawn on Beacon Hill? | CommonWealth Beacon, July 29, 2024 | Gintautas Dumcius
Amendment withdrawals are a growing trend in the Massachusetts Legislature, as a form of political theater.
Behind closed doors, Mass. Senate President Spilka won $3.4 million in earmarks for her district | The Boston Globe, July 29, 2024 | Matt Stout and Samantha J. Gross
The Massachusetts legislative leaders inflated the money earmarked for Senate President Karen Spilka’s district during closed-door budget negotiations.
Process matters on legislation like energy bill. | The Berkshire Eagle, July 19, 2024 | Our Opinion
The Massachusetts Legislature passed a sweeping clean energy bill, but the wait until the final month of the session to rush the bill through is emblematic of how Beacon Hill operates.
Beacon Hill powerbrokers say they spend lavishly to build camaraderie. But who’s picking up the tab? | The Boston Globe, July 12, 2024 | Adrian Walker
Influential Massachusetts lawmakers often spend lavishly out of their campaign finance accounts — including with colleagues and lobbyists.
Audit The Legislature? DiZoglio’s “Ready For It” | State House News Service, June 18, 2024 | Michael P. Norton and Chris Lisinski
A spokesperson for Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio confirmed that her campaign has submitted the required amount of signatures for her ballot initiative to audit the Legislature to appear on the ballot.
Do-nothing committees show the inner workings of the State House | The Boston Globe, June 4, 2024 | Adrian Walker
Many committees in the Massachusetts Legislature rarely, if ever, hold hearings or consider legislation — with chairs collecting major pay increases despite doing no visible work.
He earns an extra $61,000 to lead two committees. They never considered a bill. | The Boston Globe, May 31, 2024 | The Editorial Board
More than a fifth of the Massachusetts Legislature’s committees have held no hearing or considered any bills in the current two-year session — yet leaders earn tens of thousands of dollars in additional stipends.
Dissecting the ‘toxic’ State House culture | CommonWealth Magazine, May 29, 2024 | Travis Benson
The Massachusetts Legislature has a toxic culture that incentivizes falling in line to leadership.
A few Mass. Democrats put $5m into the budget for dog parks, a castle, and more. And they did it in secret. | The Boston Globe, May 9, 2024 | Samantha J. Gross and Matt Stout
Five of Massachusetts’ top legislators slipped $5 million in previously undisclosed earmarks into the chamber’s spending.
Upon review, legislative panel not backing any Massachusetts ballot questions | New England Public Media, May 2, 2024 | Chris Lisinski
The Massachusetts Legislature’s Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, which oversees the body’s analysis of ballot questions, concluded that none should be approved by the Legislature.
Sunshine week meets shade on Beacon Hill | WWLP, March 15, 2024 | Colin A. Young
As Sunshine Week 2024 started — an annual event meant to promote open government — the Massachusetts Legislature had taken fewer than half as many recorded votes in the current legislative session than in any of the previous six sessions.
2023 was a ‘banner year’ for government transparency on Beacon Hill, and not in a good way | WGBH News, March 15, 2024 | Adam Reilly
WATCH: Act on Mass break down the lack of transparency in the Massachusetts Legislature, and share some reasons for optimism despite a bleak overall situation.
Massachusetts Blues | The American Prospect, December 4, 2023 | Robert Kuttner
Massachusetts lags far behind other states with Democratic trifectas in office on enacting progressive policies.
‘Stunning failure’: Mass. Legislature blasted for adjourning without passing supplemental budget | NBC Boston, December 1, 2023 | Sam Doran and Chris Lisinski
The Massachusetts Legislature adjuourned without passing a critical budget bill with funding for the state’s emergency shelter system, public worker raises, and special education.
Look who’s backing DiZoglio’s ballot campaign | The Boston Globe, November 25, 2023 | Jeff Jacoby
Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has built a bipartisan coalition of supporters for her ballot initiative to audit the Legislature.
Mass. Legislature closes out least productive period in decades | The Boston Globe, November 9, 2023 | Samantha J. Gross and Matt Stout
The Legislature has taken fewer votes at the current point in their two-year session than any other going back two decades.
‘Dysfunctional normalization’: Massachusetts is starting its fiscal year without an annual budget — for the 13th straight time | The Boston Globe, June 30, 2023 | Matt Stout
Massachusetts has been the only state to be late in completing its budget plan every year since 2017.
Beacon Hill bungles budget, again | The Boston Globe, June 29, 2023 | The Editorial Board
For the seventh year in a row, the Legislature has not passed the annual budget on time. This deepens cynicism about government and creates unnecessary problems for state agencies and any entity that gets state funding.
Communities beg for a new tool in the housing toolbox | The Boston Globe, June 27, 2023 | The Editorial Board
More than a dozen communities have sent home rule petitions to the Legislature asking for permission to impose a real estate transfer tax to fund affordable housing. The Legislature has not even held a hearing on any of these requests. Meanwhile, the housing crunch has escalated to a full‑blown crisis.
Rules feud leads to 2 takes on committee hearing | CommonWealth Magazine, June 15, 2023 | Bruce Mohl
Because the House and Senate can’t agree on the rules for making decisions in joint committees, the House and Senate have held separate, and therefore repetitive, hearings on some bills.
Shifting landscape may finally lift sex education bill, cosponsor says | The Boston Globe, May 31, 2023 | Sam Drysdale
There’s hope that a bill to improve sex education in Massachusetts might pass after 10 years where it’s failed to make progress in the House. Fourteen states and D.C. have better sex education policies than MA.
Lawmakers show little concern over sleepy start | The Boston Globe, May 29, 2023 | Matt Stout
The current legislative session is the least productive session in over 40 years; just 10 bills had passed by the end of May. This reflects, in part, that power has been increasingly funneled to a few top leaders.
Sad state of affairs on Beacon Hill CommonWealth Magazine, May 26, 2023 | Jerry Berger
The annual budget passed in the House without any significant public debate. House leaders have tightened their grip so that rank-and-file legislators are rarely willing to challenge them.
Legislature does the people’s work behind closed doors | The Boston Globe, May 26, 2023 | Letter to the Editor, Jonathan Hecht
A huge tax package passed in the House with no notice and no debate. A corporate tax cut costing Massachusetts at least $79 million annually was slipped into the package via a back channel without public or legislative scrutiny or participation.
It’s time to restore legislative democracy on Beacon Hill | The Boston Globe, May 22, 2023 | The Editorial Board
Virtually all policy in the Legislature comes from the top down. Power is essentially vested in four offices: the House Speaker, the Senate President, and the two Chairs of the Ways & Means Committees.
State officials tout no bias in police stops. Looking closer reveals a different reality. | Cape Cod Times, May 22, 2023 | Jeannette Hinkle, Brad Petrishen, Dian Zhang, and Dan Keemahill
Massachusetts released its first taxpayer-funded report on racial profiling in two decades — concluding that there was no pattern of racial disparity in traffic stops. Yet an investigation revealed that the government used a test with flawed methodology and tightly controlled researchers despite claiming the report was “independent.”
Reading the tax relief tea leaves | The Boston Globe, May 19, 2023 | The Editorial Board
As pandemic relief assistance was winding down in early 2022, the Legislature promised low- and moderate-income households in Massachusetts tax relief to make life more affordable, especially in the face of high inflation. Over a year later, taxpayers are still struggling with the cost of living and are still waiting for tax relief as the Legislature dawdles.
The Mass. Legislature doesn’t see the world like the rest of us – and it doesn’t have to | The Boston Globe, May 19, 2023 | Adam Reilly
There were two examples recently of the Legislature’s belief that it has a right to evade public scrutiny. First, the House, on a voice vote, refused to publish details of votes in committees. Second, the Senate voted, with very little notice or discussion, to abolish the term limit for the Senate president.
Fight erupts over committee rules on Beacon Hill | CommonWealth Magazine, May 15, 2023 | Bruce Mohl
Rare public exposure of the power struggle between the House and Senate occurred in a battle between the House and Senate Chairs of the joint energy committee.
The state Senate goes astray on limits for its leader | The Boston Globe, February 20, 2023 | The Editorial Board
A member of the Senate’s leadership team succeeded in getting the 8-year term limit for the Senate President repealed.
With zero public debate, Mass. Senate votes to abolish term limits for chamber president | The Boston Globe, February 20, 2023 | Matt Stout
With no public debate, the MA Senate voted overwhelmingly to eliminate a 30-year old rule limiting the Senate president to 8 years in the office.
New House rules increase access but reject committee transparency | The Provincetown Independent, February 15, 2023 | Amelia Roth-Dishy
Legislative transparency in Massachusetts, particularly in the House, is worse than in most other states. The House recently adopted rules that will continue hybrid committee hearings, with remote access enhancing public access. However, it voted against (in 45 seconds without debate) releasing members’ votes in committees.
Under new rules, House returns to in-person sessions | CommonWealth Magazine, February 2, 2023 | Colin A. Young and Sam Doran
Committee hearings will be hybrid, but basic rules reforms — including a requirement to publish full committee votes — were rejected on a voice vote without debate.
Open the State House — and legislators’ votes and committee proceedings | The Boston Globe, January 25, 2023 | Jonathan Hecht and Dan Winslow
The Legislature operates in an undemocratic fashion, favoring insiders and lobbyists. Committee votes are not publicly available, allowing leadership to minimize committees’ influence and frustrating legislators’ ability to participate and represent their constituents’ interests.
Report: Massachusetts lawmakers faulted for lack of transparency, independence | MassLive, November 16, 2021 | Matt Murphy
The Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts released a report titled “The Massachusetts Legislature: Democracy in Decline”, which takes a critical look at functioning of the MA Legislature.
Ex-lobbyist reveals how the House really works | CommonWealth Beacon, December 19, 2018 | Phillip Sego
A former lobbyist explains the flaws in the Legislature’s power structure – telling a reporter, “Don’t confuse what goes on in this building with democracy.”