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MA Has a Democratic State House. But Do We Have a *Democratic* State House?

At the start of the legislative session, both Senate President Karen Spilka and Speaker Ron Mariano said that they would take up reforms during the Rules debate in February to increase transparency and boost public confidence in the legislative process.

It’s no surprise why they are singing such a tune: Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s ballot question about auditing the State Legislature won every single city and town with a commanding lead, and the press rightly and repeatedly called out the Legislature last session for missing deadline after deadline and doing so much of their work in the dark (when and if there was work even being done).

But here’s what’s clear to us: we, the public, should be saying what would boost public confidence in the legislative process. That’s not a decision to be left just to State House Leadership.

Everyday people need to have clear ways of following what happens in our State House, making their voice heard, and seeing that their voice can actually have an impact.

That’s why we joined a wide-ranging list of advocacy groups from across the Commonwealth calling for a suite of reforms to boost transparency, participation, and public accountability. But if we want any of these changes to happen, then your legislators need to hear from you too.

The changes include the following:

  • Improving public access to information by making committee votes and testimony public
  • Increasing opportunities for public engagement in the legislative process by providing adequate notice of hearing schedules, further limiting the number of bills per hearing, providing testifiers with an understanding of speaking order, and guaranteeing the right of incarcerated individuals to testify (a practice which began last session)
  • Creating a more open, robust, and timely committee process by requiring public committee markup sessions and public committee reports with bill summaries, moving up the hearing and reporting timelines, expediting hearings for bills that advanced in the prior session, and requiring Conference Committees to meet in open session
  • Providing more time to read legislation, whether bills or floor amendments

Your legislators will say that the public doesn’t actually care about any of this. It’s our job to show that they are wrong. Can you take a minute to email your state legislators?

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