ethics

This week's Conference Committees Meetings...

After last week’s flurry of activity on Beacon Hill, this week may seem like a period of rest for our legislators – and for those constituents wishing to be heard on the reforms and revenues affecting the health of our state.

It's not too late! This week looks to be filled with conference committee meetings. And while they are all closed to the public, they will all be run by our legislators - men and women that are interested in and impacted by your thoughts and concerns.

Below you can find for each of these bills - Ethics, Transportation, Pension, and Budget - the full bill text, conference committee members, and analysis, when available. 

Meanwhile...

It is clear that the revenue options currently proposed in both the House and Senate Budgets will be inadequate to support the public structures that have been cut over the past year. Legislators are already talking about options for revenue bills in the fall, including a revamped bill to support Casinos and Slots.

Other options that were suggested in this year's budget debate included restoring the Income Tax to its 5.95% rate in 1999 (amendment by Sen. Chang Díaz), and the expansion of the Sales Tax to include professional services (amendment by Rep. Peter Kocot).

ONE Massachusetts is interested in hearing more about what you value in our state, and how you think we should pay for it! 

A wide range of paid lobbyists and volunteers from community based organizations paying close attention to the economists' projections at last weeks revenue hearing at Senate Ways and Means, got another piece of news from Senator Marc Pacheco who announced that the Senate intended to debate ethics and lobbying reform legislation on May 14. The day after ther Senate Ways and Means releases it's budget recommendations and one day before amendments are due.

Not unexpected news, since Secretary Bill Galvin had released a much improved lobbyist tracking system that folks were already testing to find themselves and see if the lobbyists they knew were working against them were properly registered. (Yes, a good user-friendly lobbyist search system is critical to campaign planning and implementation.)

The paid lobbyists and volunteer advocates paying attention to this critical reform effort have been tracking carefully what they considered the overly broad "definition" of lobbying that was in the Governors' proposal and had been retained in the House version.

This definition applied to for-profit AND non-profit large and small employers and both had shared with the House Ethics Committee their concerns that if they had to register everyone who had been involved in strategic research and preparing fact sheets the fees would be excessive and the reporting requirements would be burdensome. 

Because we believe that transparency, enabled by user-friendly searchable data bases, is key to encouraging and supporting civic engagement and accountability, we are encouraging ONE Mass network members to talk with their Senator about two things next week.

There are many things we can achieve together as a community that we are not able to achieve as individuals. Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed transparency and lobbying reforms are designed to restore in Massachusetts residents a confidence in government that makes those achievements possible. Yesterday, March 18^th, Massachusetts legislators held a joint hearing at the State House to discuss the Bill on ethics and lobbying reform.

State Administration and Regulatory Oversight Co-chair, Representative Steven Walsh, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo hope to have the bill on the House floor as soon as possible, certainly before the 2010 budget reaches the floor in late April.  There are rumors around the State House that this bill will be on the House floor as early as the last week of March.  Senator Brian Joyce, the committee's co-chair, called Patrick's bill a "very well thought out and very well developed proposal" that both leaders of the House and Senate would like to implement as soon as possible.

GLEN JOHNSON AP in SouthCoast Today writes that Governor Patrick, Senate President Murry and House Speaker DeLeo may be on to something ...............

Collectively, the initiatives might help restore public confidence in the Legislature and change the way Massachusetts government does business.

A transportation overhaul, financed by giving the state the highest gas tax in the nation, is the first of several initiatives Patrick and other Beacon Hill leaders will consider.

And Patrick, Murray and DeLeo all want to move next to a sweeping change of the state's transportation system — Murray has already filed legislation in the Senate.In the House, DeLeo started his tenure as speaker by pushing through new rules for his members he hopes lay the foundation for an upcoming debate on ethics reforms. Patrick has already proposed a comprehensive ethics overhaul. 

Besides ethics and transportation reform, the leaders have all said they want to eliminate pension perks that permeate state government and aggravate taxpayers. That sets up the next major legislative initiative: retirement reform. Among the ideas are standardizing the state system around private-sector retirement programs and eliminating such concepts as enhanced pensions for lawmakers who get voted out of office.

Collectively, like the lovely lady in the Thomas Nast cartoon looking over Tammany Hall, we all need to continue to pay attention and make sure our elected and appointed officials know we're watching them do their best to rebuild the public's confidence in their ability to keep doing the right thing.