As we're getting deeper into August, the Statehouse in Boston is getting quieter. This is the second week after the unofficial summer recess was declared for the House and the Senate. And it follows the conclusion of the National Conference of State Legislatures (the NCSL) gathering in Boston. State House News Service reporter Chris Lisinski explains that what lawmakers do with this time varies greatly.
Chris Lisinksi, SHNS: I really think it's a mix of everything. Some lawmakers go on vacation, especially those who have kids in school. They take advantage of having August to take family trips or just spend time with their families. Some focus on fundraising. Some hang out in the district and some even in fact do work trips.
Carrie Healy, NEPM: So, I know in a couple of weeks, Chris, I'm headed to Maine. Are any lawmakers headed out of state?
Yeah. Speaking of Maine, there's actually a group of lawmakers who are going to be headed up that way this week. A delegation, including Senator Jo Comerford of Northampton, is going to Augusta for a trip focused on (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or) PFAS, sometimes referred to as ‘forever chemicals.’ It's been a growing area of concern for policymakers, not just here in Massachusetts, but across the country trying to regulate their use in everything from toys for children to firefighting materials.
Lawmakers, including Comerford, are going to meet with folks up there and learn a little bit about how Maine is tackling this topic and what Massachusetts can learn from that.
Will Comerfords' presence in Maine on PFAS put any real pressure on the legislature to move on the issue when they come back in September?
I don't know if that would translate into movement right when they come back in September. It's always hard to handicap exactly when something like that is going to come up that isn't responding to the news of the day in the same way that, say, raises for bar advocates did, recently, but it could certainly be something on the agenda for the rest of the session as we head into a busier stretch early next year.
Last week was the state petition filing deadline for proposed ballot questions. So what were some of the proposals that cleared the early hurdle?
Oh boy! We've got dozens that cleared the early hurdle. And we should note that dozens are not going to make it to the ballot next November. This is just the opening step that tells us what's in the running to make it to the ballot.
Some of the most interesting ones once again, target the legislature. We have proposed measures that would either eliminate or significantly curtail stipends, that legislative leaders award to committee chairs and others in the leadership hierarchy. We have a measure that would replace the state's partisan primary system with a so-called open primary, or a jungle primary, where the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, even if they're both from the same party and a whole host of others, that could have some really major impacts for the state.
So, what lies ahead for these ballot questions?
First, the Attorney General's office is going to review them to make sure that they pass muster under constitutional requirements. And the next is, each campaign will need to collect almost 75,000 voter signatures.
And that really winnows them back down, I'm sure!
Briefly Chris, Governor Maura Healey's now signed those bigger bills that the Legislature sent to her desk recently. Both the expanded shield law and the spending bill that included the bar advocate raise. They carried some urgency to their passage in this time of enhanced federal scrutiny and legal threat in other states. But the governor waited until the NCSL wrapped up to sign these laws. Was there a message that the governor was sending in the timing of the signing? And do you get the sense that other states are paying attention?
It could have taken the governor until Thursday to sign that law, simply because she gets ten days to review every bill and needed that much time to get through it.
But I do think it's significant that at NCSL, Governor Healey and top House and Senate Democrats from Massachusetts really went out of their way to present a bipartisan message to of state lawmakers working together, coming together with a goal of helping their constituents and overcoming differences.
That's quite a contrast from the animus behind this new law, which in large part deals with what Republican legislatures in other states,
who had a presence at NCSL are doing to reproductive care and to transgender care.
I don't know. At least for me, there's a little bit of a disconnect there where the message at NCSL is a little bit different than the message alongside that bill signing.
