He was joking when he described “fortune-telling” as a preferred pastime, but House Speaker Ron Mariano still managed to divine the way electoral politics would affect a Senate tax cap proposal.
Elections
Posted inPublic Records
Senate ready to open access to legislative records, muddying outlook for ballot question
The Senate will take up a bill next week that would subject the governor’s office and Legislature to public records requirements, but huge questions still linger about how legislative action would affect a question on the November ballot seeking a similar goal.
Posted inPolitics
Eleventh-hour Senate move could upend tax rebate ballot question
Democrats in the Senate appear to be coalescing around a late-term push to repeal the law known as Chapter 62F, in the process inviting incendiary anger from groups that want government to control its spending habits.
Posted inState Government
SJC upholds Walsh’s spot on ballot; Manning Martin case still pending
On Monday, SJC Justice Frank Gaziano denied the State Ballot Law Commission’s appeal of an Essex County Superior Court ruling that overturned the commission’s decision and reinstated Walsh’s name onto the ballot.
Posted inState Government
Walsh back on ballot after judge faults process, despite fraud evidence
The commission plans to appeal the decision to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, according to a spokesperson for MassDems.
Posted inBallot Questions
The tricky calculus of designing a ballot with nine questions
While law sets clear patterns for most of the ballot, officials need to lean more on the skills used by magazine or newspaper layout editors when it comes to statewide questions.
Posted inState Government
July is here, and that means it’s busy season again on Beacon Hill
An even-year July 31 is always a critical crossroads for the House and Senate, but rules changes this time around mean it will look different than it has for the past two decades. And as the House budget chief put it, “it can’t go worse” than last term.
Posted inState Government
How the House’s sausage-making put transparency groups in a tough spot
A trio of good-government and transparency organizations backed the House’s proposal to craft a new public records framework for the Legislature, but they’re straining to avoid the riptide of the audit-the-Legislature debate that representatives tied to the same bill.
Posted inBallot Questions
Mass. high court strikes rent control question from ballot
The decision averts a months-long season of aggressive campaigning that seemed sure to generate tens of millions of dollars in spending on attack ads and dire warnings about economic upheaval.
Posted inBallot Questions
Mass. primary election overhaul eligible for November ballot, SJC rules
Should Massachusetts run its elections more like California? That question is cleared to appear on the ballot, according to the state’s highest court, possibly teeing up a major shift in our notoriously uncompetitive races.
Posted inBallot Questions
SJC blocks high-stakes income tax cut question from the November ballot
In a blockbuster ruling just as ballot measure campaigns submit their final signatures, Massachusetts’s highest court cut the fuse of a revenue bomb that was set to blow $5 billion out of the state budget. An initiative aiming to cut income taxes is blocked from the ballot because of errors in the attorney general’s summary.
Posted inBallot Questions
Powerful real estate group says it’s open to rent control compromise
With just two weeks until a controversial rent control ballot measure could be locked in, a flurry of negotiations — and pockets of sustained resistance — puts Beacon Hill in a tricky position.
Posted inCourts
SJC keeps recreational marijuana repeal in the mix for November
The first of four expected rulings about ballot question eligibility went in favor of the campaign, with justices deciding that a push to reverse the 2016 statewide pot vote was properly certified and summarized.
Posted inState Government
Shortsleeve would tie legislative funding to audit compliance
Angered by the Legislature’s tactics to curtail the scope of the voter-backed audit law, Republican Brian Shortsleeve said Monday that if he were governor, he would veto the budget appropriations […]
Posted inPolitics
Yet again, legislative competition in Massachusetts will be woeful
Even as voters prepare for a historic number of ballot questions with enormous stakes, most will have no options other than the incumbent when it comes to picking their representatives and senators.
Posted inPolitics
A cakewalk for Bill Galvin
For the first time since he was elected secretary of state in 1994, Bill Galvin will not face either a Democrat or a Republican opponent this fall.
Posted inEnergy
Enbridge proposes new gas pipeline expansion in New England, placing Mass. in the crosshairs
Enbridge’s announcement is bound to ignite a firestorm and set off a host of thorny questions, while Gov. Maura Healey’s position on natural gas will again be put to the test as the proposal lands amid her reelection campaign.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Healey underwater in new poll
A new MassINC Polling Group survey finds the incumbent governor with a net unfavorable rating among voters, but don’t overread the significance of one snapshot this far out from the election.
Posted inPolitics
Healey’s reelection bid confronts volatile energy politics
Healey’s shift on climate is now starting to bleed into her campaign for a second term as players across the spectrum are looking to leverage their support in the November election to make gains on their issues.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Data centers get their tax breaks, taxpayer group side-eyes ballot measures
State officials had been working on crafting the tax exemption since the Legislature required it in the 2024 economic development measure that Gov. Maura Healey signed. But 18 months after that law was signed, the tax break comes at a fraught time for the artificial intelligence industry.
Posted inCourts
High court justices weigh deadline for Campbell-DiZoglio resolution
During oral arguments, the Supreme Judicial Court signaled it might order Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Auditor Diana DiZoglio to agree on a narrow scope of issues by a certain date, in an attempt to force forward movement in the long-running fight about auditing the Legislature.
Posted inCourts
DiZoglio-Campbell feud hurtles toward Supreme Judicial Court
Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s scorched-earth reply to outreach from Attorney General Andrea Campbell made clear that she sees court as the only venue to resolve her stalled legislative audit. Her team will soon get a chance to pitch the state’s top justices.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Eager to be counted — on largely symbolic vote
The House’s vote on cuts to the Mass Save energy efficiency program provided a chance for several representatives in the midst of election fights to stake out a position they might soon tout on the campaign trail.
Posted inBallot Questions
Mass. Senate asks top state court to examine constitutionality of legislative reform ballot questions
For the first time in a decade, lawmakers exercised their authority to seek an advisory opinion from the state’s highest court, asking justices whether a pair of ballot questions on course to reach voters in November raise constitutional concerns.
