sponsored by The Boston Foundation
CommonWealth Voices aims to be a beacon of robust discourse, offering a platform for analysis and advocacy on the challenges and aspirations of political life in Massachusetts.
The Boston Foundation is deeply committed to civic leadership, and essential to our work is the exchange of informed opinions. We are proud to partner on a platform that engages such a broad range of demographic and ideological viewpoints.
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We welcome informed commentary about local, state and national public policy. Please include the author’s contact information when submitting.
When we have the chance to prevent tragedy, why would we take it away?
The question before Massachusetts voters cannot be reduced to whether firearm regulations should be more or less restrictive—it is whether the Commonwealth should preserve an additional pathway for intervention when credible warning signs are present.
Question 3 would bring California’s primary problems to Massachusetts
Democracy reform is personal for me. The first time I walked into the State House, I was a 16-year-old youth organizer advocating for our civics education bill with other Gateway City kids.
All-party primaries would be a step backwards for Massachusetts
Question 3 would eliminate the ability of Bay State parties to police the use of their party labels by candidates in elections and sever the only meaningful accountability link between candidates/officeholders and party platforms.
The 2024 gun law has saved lives. A yes vote on Question 9 will keep it in place.
The law focuses on the root causes of gun violence to make all Massachusetts communities safer – and it is working.
Think capping ticket prices will save you money? Think again.
Gov. Healey is right to look at this issue. Unfortunately, the proposal included in her supplemental budget bill, called “The Great Divide Act,” will likely only make the problem worse.
Ticket prices are out of control. Gov. Healey’s bill will make them worse.
We should be fighting against that market domination, not enacting legislation that further enables it.
The crucial marijuana question not on the ballot: Why has Massachusetts failed to educate the public on the harmful effects of cannabis and monitor the impact of its growing use, especially on young people?
Despite clear evidence that cannabis has had negative health effects in Massachusetts, our state has done little to survey and confront these harmful consequences.
More donor disclosure is always in the public interest
Requiring people to stand up in public for their political acts fosters civic courage, without which democracy is doomed.
Massachusetts can protect data privacy without hurting small businesses
As lawmakers debate the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act, they should be careful not to adopt an approach that unintentionally makes it harder and more expensive for local businesses to compete, grow, and innovate online.
To maximize consumer protection, new data privacy law must include a ‘private right of action’
Regular people’s ability to sue businesses for the alleged violation of a law is called private right of action, and it is a necessary inclusion if the future Massachusetts data privacy law is to truly protect citizens’ rights, safety, and privacy.
Complexity isn’t the issue. The Legislature’s dysfunction is.
The complexity of our few bills tells us very little, if anything, however, about the quality of the bills or of the process that produced them. In fact, the complexity of bills covering multiple topics often only adds to the dysfunction and underperformance of our Legislature.
Rather than a defense of their productivity, the Legislature’s reliance on omnibus bills should be an indictment
Democracy depends on being able to give positive and negative reinforcement to elected officials. Constituents should be able to praise legislators for what they do right and criticize them for what they do wrong. Omnibus bills weaken that ability, and that’s the point.
Omnibus bills enable opaque lawmaking
The modern trend of relying on omnibus bills for routine legislative work is not a neutral choice. It turns a simple democratic process into a labyrinthine ordeal.
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