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Insights, analysis, and guidance from the world of Massachusetts politics and municipal affairs.

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Are Ballot Initiative Committees the New Normal in Massachusetts?

Are Ballot Initiative Committees the New Normal in Massachusetts?

Massachusetts is experiencing a record-breaking surge in ballot initiative activity for the 2026 election cycle, with 47 petitions filed and up to 12 potential questions headed for the November ballot. A newly formed special legislative committee will review 11 certified citizen initiatives covering tax reform, rent control, election changes, cannabis regulation, and government transparency. As one of the few states using an indirect initiative process, Massachusetts gives lawmakers the power to...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
End of Session: Legislation Shifts to Law

End of Session: Legislation Shifts to Law

As the end of the 192nd legislative session approaches this Sunday, hundreds of bills are being finalized by the legislature, many of which will soon become law. In our blog post last week, we touched on two bills relating to expenditure - the FY23 budget and the economic growth and relief bill. These are among a number of active bills in the legislature that will bring new advancements across the Commonwealth when codified. Many of these important bills have been debated on or enacted with litt...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
57 Billion Dollars in 5 Days: The Frenzy of July

57 Billion Dollars in 5 Days: The Frenzy of July

Over the past five days, the Massachusetts legislature has made significant progress on two major expenditure bills, the FY23 budget and economic growth and relief bill. This legislation, if enacted, will provide over 57 billion dollars of critical support to the Commonwealth over the next fiscal year. With the legislature preparing to take vacation at the end of the month, this has only increased the sense of urgency to get these bills passed. This week, the final version of the 2023 budget, HB...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Big Bills Haven't Budged

Big Bills Haven't Budged

The end of the 192nd formal session in Massachusetts is quickly approaching, yet many bills still have not been passed. As the legislators take a vacation in August, this has led to a surge of activity this month, with both chambers already taking up a number of bills in formal sessions. However 1,000 bills remain in the joint committee stage alone, and as such, it is unlikely that many of these will be brought before each body prior to the 31st. There are a number of “big bills” that InstaTrac...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Continued Use of Conference Committees

Continued Use of Conference Committees

There are many aspects of Massachusetts state government that allow the legislative process to work both efficiently and effectively. While most steps of the legislative process are known to the public, a bill does not become law simply. For the most divisive and complex legislation, a conference committee will be used to iron out legislative differences between chambers. As such, the conference committee stage of the legislative process is crucial, as it requires collaboration across parties an...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Incumbents: In or Out? Governor’s Council Races 2022

Incumbents: In or Out? Governor’s Council Races 2022

As a part of our ongoing series of blog posts over the past month, we have highlighted a number of candidates running for various positions in Massachusetts. While Bay Staters will have a number of important decisions to make on Election Day, there is one office that due to high incumbency rates often receives far less media attention than others. In spite of a smaller media spotlight, Governor’s Council positions are some of the most important on the ballot. The decisions of the Governor’s Coun...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Open Seat Elections 2022: MA House of Representatives

Open Seat Elections 2022: MA House of Representatives

In our previous post, we highlighted the five elections for fall 2022 in the Massachusetts state senate in which an incumbent is not running for their current position. These “open seat” elections often present the most unpredictable results, especially when considering that certain legislative districts have been redrawn for the 2022 election. While each of the five senate elections could be impacted by these changes, this will have a much larger effect for the open seat elections in the House....

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Open Seat Elections 2022: MA Senate

Open Seat Elections 2022: MA Senate

The fall of 2022 will have a number of important elections taking place in the Commonwealth. This includes a number of elections for federal, state, and local positions, all of which will greatly impact the future for Massachusetts. While we have previously highlighted data on the many current legislators running for non-legislative state positions, their candidacy in these races has left a vacant seat for their present roles. There are a number of open seat elections in each branch of the legis...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Less Love for Legislators - MA Democratic Party Convention 2022

Less Love for Legislators - MA Democratic Party Convention 2022

This past weekend on June 3-4, the Massachusetts Democratic Party held a convention in Worcester in order to help establish the party’s endorsements for the 2022 state election. In each election, approximately 4,000 votes were cast by delegates, and the results were interesting, to say the least. While there are a number of trends worth noting from the results, one of the most notable is that no current legislators received a majority percentage of delegate votes. In our analysis of each race, w...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
The Power of Veto

The Power of Veto

Across most levels of government in the U.S., the executive branch holds significant powers that do not exist in other branches. This rings true in Massachusetts, where the governor has a number of privileges, one of the most known being the power of veto. Though many may already be aware that a veto is an executive’s power to reject a bill and send it back to the legislature, very few citizens understand the different types and frequency of vetoes in Massachusetts. In looking at Governor Baker’...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
House v. Senate: The Better Budget Proposal:

House v. Senate: The Better Budget Proposal:

Over the past month and a half in Massachusetts, the primary focus for the state legislature has been to draft and pass a proposal for the FY23 budget. This year’s budget process has invoked intense debate in both the House and Senate, with deliberations likely concluding in the Senate today. While each proposed FY23 budget allocates practically the same allotment of around $49.6 B, the budgets themselves differ in a number of ways. Looking at our data from this year as well as the past decade,...

MassTrac Staff ·
Budget
Senate Budget Breakdown - A Decade of Change:

Senate Budget Breakdown - A Decade of Change:

Last Friday at 1:00 PM, the Massachusetts State Senate released 1,178 amendments to their proposed fiscal year 2023 budget, SB4. The budget, which appropriates $49.7B total, funds many initiatives also included in the recent House budget (HB4700), including early education, mental health services, and more. However, SB4 differs in some ways to that of the House’s proposal, as well as in comparison to Senate budgets from previous years. Our detailed look into the past decade of Senate budget prop...

MassTrac Staff ·
Budget
Alito Opinion Aftermath: Abortion Rights Won’t Change in Massachusetts

Alito Opinion Aftermath: Abortion Rights Won’t Change in Massachusetts

This past week, much of the nation was shocked when a leaked Supreme Court majority opinion from Justice Samuel Alito showed intent to reverse the decision from Roe v. Wade in 1973. As many know, the Roe v. Wade decision helped make first and second trimester abortions legal across the U.S., but in the wake of its undoing, the legality of abortion will be left up to the states. In Massachusetts, abortion is already a codified state right, thanks to the ROE Act passed in 2020. This and other ongo...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
An Overview: The Work and Family Mobility Act

An Overview: The Work and Family Mobility Act

Starting at 11:00 AM today, the Massachusetts State Senate will be debating an important bill for thousands in the Commonwealth, the Work and Family Mobility Act, SB2851. The bill, previously passed in the House (as HB4470) will allow for undocumented immigrants living in Massachusetts with a Real ID (valid or expired) to apply for a driver’s license in Massachusetts. While the license would still differ from a typical driver’s license and primarily provide certain protections for undocumented i...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
House Budget Breakdown - A Decade in Review

House Budget Breakdown - A Decade in Review

From fiscal year 2014 to fiscal year 2023, there have been many differences between each budget in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. This is in part due to administrative and legislative changes, but also because of the changing needs of the Commonwealth over the past ten years. As debate concluded yesterday evening in the House on the amendments included in the 2023 appropriations act, our data from the last ten years reveals some interesting trends worth noting. 

MassTrac Staff ·
Budget
Bring on the Budget Amendments

Bring on the Budget Amendments

Last week from 1:00 PM on April 13th to 5:00 PM on April 15th, the Massachusetts House of Representatives released 1,521 amendments to their FY23 (fiscal year 2023) proposed budget (HB4700). In comparison to the House budget for FY22, the proposal in HB4700 had 355 more amendments, marking a 30% increase in the number of filed amendments between 2022 and 2023. This increase in proposed amendments is not atypical of the House of Representatives, but analyzing the budget reveals some interesting t...

MassTrac Staff ·
Budget
MassTrac: The best way to find and follow amendments

MassTrac: The best way to find and follow amendments

When we think of budgets, we know they’re supposed to be limited to appropriations. But in Massachusetts, we also know that’s not always the case. Budget season has arrived in the Commonwealth - and with it, thousands of amendments will be coming down the pipeline. MassTrac makes it easy to dig through earmarks, outside section changes, and even General and Session Law changes proposed through the budget process.

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Deadline Data: Joint Committee on Health Care Financing

Deadline Data: Joint Committee on Health Care Financing

Each legislative session in Massachusetts includes a deadline for joint committees to report their bills out to the House and Senate floor. For most joint committees, this date was February 2nd of this year. However, one committee differs from the rest: the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing (HCF). Their deadline was last week on March 30th. Our data reveals some interesting trends from this session’s HCF deadline, and how the committee greatly differs from others in the Massachusetts leg...

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy
Gas Tax Amendment Fuels Senate Debate

Gas Tax Amendment Fuels Senate Debate

By now you have undoubtedly noticed the rising price of gasoline here in the Commonwealth, and in fact, across the US. To help people with this unexpected cost, several states, including Georgia, Maryland and most recently Connecticut instituted a gas tax holiday period. During the month of March, debate over instituting a gas tax holiday period took center stage in Massachusetts, leading to passionate remarks, especially in the Senate.

MassTrac Staff ·
Policy

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