The golden dome of the State House. (Photo by Andy Metzger) field_54b3f951675b3

NEXT WEEK IS Sunshine Week across the country — a tradition among journalists and good governance advocates to highlight the importance of public records and government transparency. Here in Massachusetts, the clouds are hanging low — and we aren’t just talking about the drizzly weather. 

2023 was a bad year for good governance on Beacon Hill. The Senate eliminated the Senate president’s term limits, Gov. Healey walked back her promise to comply with the state’s public records law, and the House shot down an amendment that would have made legislative committee votes public without a public vote. And that was just February.

Things didn’t improve much after that. By March, both branches had refused to comply with the state auditor’s audit of the Legislature. In late November, the Boston Globe noted that the Legislature had only taken 70 roll call votes during the session — half as many as they took by that period in the session four years ago, and nearly a third of their average over the last 10 years. 

The Legislature’s crowning achievement in 2023? The title of the least effective legislature in the country.

But this doesn’t come at much surprise. Beacon Hill has long been infamous for being consistently ranked as one of the least transparent legislatures in the country. We’re one of only four states where the Legislature is exempt from public records law, one of only two where the governor is exempt, and the only state in the country where the Legislature, the judiciary, and the governor’s office all claim this exemption. 

The result of all these exemptions to commonplace good governance safeguards is that the bulk of the decision-making on Beacon Hill happens behind closed doors, during off-the-record conversations, among a just handful of powerful individuals. Without adequate input from or accountability to the public, our leaders have little incentive to make bold changes, even when they know such changes to be widely popular.

In fact, advocates and voters watch the same popular bills die quiet deaths, without explanation, session after session. Take the Healthy Youth Act. This wildly popular bill, which would update the Commonwealth’s sex and relationship education standards to be medically accurate, consent-based, and LGBTQ+-inclusive, has been killed by the House every session since its introduction in 2007. 

The public has no insight into why this bill has been killed, or who among the majority of legislators who cosponsor this bill is acting against its progress. As advocates, that opacity leaves us with very few levers to pull to effect change. 

And it’s not just happening to taboo topics like sex ed. Countless other popular bills have met similar fates, including same-day voter registration, ending wage theft, and removing archaic language (i.e., slurs) from our laws.

Climate action, too, has been stifled at the hands of our secretive system. A study by Brown University found that one of the main reasons Massachusetts lags behind other states in passing good, green climate legislation is the lack of transparency. The report notes: “The vast majority of climate-related legislation dies in committee, where committee membership is decided by leadership and votes are not public.”

Their number one recommendation for effecting better legislative outcomes? Sharply improve transparency, including cataloging and archiving testimony submitted to committees and making it available to the public, and mandating that all committee votes be transparent and public. 

Advocates, including Act on Mass, have been calling for commonsense good governance reforms to strengthen our democracy for years. Our coalition includes thousands of volunteers across the state and dozens of endorsing organizations ranging from local antiracism groups to labor unions. Despite the size and breadth of the movement, however, our good governance reforms have struggled to gain traction on Beacon Hill, where House leaders are known to firmly oppose them.

Until now, that is. On January 23, An Act to Provide Sunlight to State Government (S. 1963), also known as the Sunlight Act, received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Rules, surmounting the first and often the steepest hurdle of the legislative process.

This bill, sponsored by longtime transparency champion Sen. Jamie Eldridge, would implement a number of urgent transparency reforms including requiring all recorded committee votes to be posted on the Legislature’s website, requiring that committee hearings be scheduled at least a week in advance, making written testimony submitted to committees publicly available, and subjecting the governor’s office to the state’s public records law. 

These reforms would go a long way towards opening up our notoriously secretive state government and make it easier for everyday people to have a say in the legislative process that shapes their lives, their communities, and their future. By advancing this bill favorably, the Senate hints that they agree. 

And why wouldn’t they? As Senate President Spilka pointed out during an interview last month, the Senate is already on the record in support of three of these four reforms (public records law for the governor’s office being the exception) through the Senate’s proposal for the Legislature’s joint rules. We cannot thank the Senate enough for leading on these issues.

One other cause for celebration: Last session, the Legislature made a number of COVID-era accessibility measures permanent, including hybrid committee hearings. This was a huge victory for the public’s ability to participate in the committee process.

We see the reforms in the Sunlight Act as the natural next steps. Saving people the drive to Beacon Hill is great, but means little if people still have only a few days notice to take time off work and prepare their testimony, and have no insight into the committee’s decision after the fact.

The Sunlight Act now sits in Senate Ways & Means, the antechamber from which a handful of bills considered urgent enough to be prioritized by Senate leadership may be brought to the floor for a vote before the end of the session. It is now incumbent upon us to convince the Senate that these transparency and accountability measures are about more than mere abstract good governance principles — they’re about the very foundation of our democracy. 

Whether it’s teenagers receiving medically accurate sex ed, increasing access to the ballot, or staving off climate disaster, the need for everyday people to have a seat at the table is indeed an urgent one.

Call your senator today to voice your support for the Sunlight Act and urge them to bring it to a vote in the Senate this session. You can send your senator a pre-written email at bit.ly/sunlight-act, and find their contact information at malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator to call them. 

After years of gloomy skies over Beacon Hill, there might just be a break in the clouds on the horizon. 

Erin Leahy is executive director and Brenna Ransden is organization director of Act on Mass.