From ending the usage of the MCAS to legalizing psychedelic psychological well being therapies, particular curiosity teams are positioning themselves to supply poll questions on proposed legal guidelines forward of the 2024 election and an preliminary August deadline.
Groups have lined up behind among the most debated subjects on Beacon Hill over the previous few classes, together with the rights and standing of staff, authorities accountability and transparency, debt-free greater schooling, and growing the minimal wage.
One agency is eyeing a possible run at election reforms.
Partners in Democracy, which is headed up by former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Danielle Allen and pitches itself as a “democracy renovation movement,” is weighing questions round same-day voter registration, simplifying the method for getting on the poll, and updating the state’s main course of.
The group has met with voters and policymakers “for months” to determine methods to enhance the state’s present elections course of, stated John Griffin, the group’s managing companion for technique.
Griffin stated the group can also be taking a look at marketing campaign finance reforms to restrict the affect of international cash in elections and addressing the “low level of competitiveness” in native contests.
Partners in Democracy stated it’s debating a proposal that may put in place a “Top Five” elections system, which might use a single nonpartisan preliminary election the place candidates from all events, together with independents, run on one poll. The high 5 candidates would transfer on to the overall election.
“We’re planning to file proposals addressing each of these issues, and will be exploring the best timing and pathway forward to passing them once they’ve been evaluated by the attorney general,” Griffin stated.
The group’s poll query committee has already spent $25,000 with the Boston-based regulation agency Verrill for “drafting of potential language for ballot measure [and] general advice,” in accordance with the state’s marketing campaign finance workplace.
Northwind Strategies, a Boston-based political consulting agency, has additionally stepped into the poll query realm although it’s unclear who their consumer is. The agency filed paperwork for the “Committee for Transparent Democracy” and lists its founding companion, Doug Rubin, as chair.
Rubin, who labored as chief of employees for former Gov. Deval Patrick and on a prolonged checklist of campaigns together with that of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, declined to touch upon the standing of a poll query.
Paperwork filed with the state stated the committee is seeking to “support policies and issues that make government more transparent and accountable.” Rubin has just lately completed work for Auditor Diana DiZoglio, who’s battling with the Legislature over transparency and accountability on Beacon Hill.
Advocates should submit the textual content of their poll inquiries to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s workplace by 5 p.m. Wednesday for evaluate. If Campbell greenlights them, supporters want to gather practically 75,000 signatures from licensed Massachusetts voters by mid-November.
Fourteen proposed legal guidelines and one constitutional modification had been filed with the lawyer basic’s workplace as of early Friday. Seven had been shot down by the workplace in September, 5 had been licensed, and a handful had been awaiting motion. More had been anticipated to be filed on Friday.
Raise Up Massachusetts can also be among the many poll query committees which have filed paperwork with the state’s marketing campaign finance workplace. The coalition has filed as a poll query committee yearly because it got here collectively in 2013.
And this yr, it’s seeking to deal with a rise to the state’s minimal wage, which bumped as much as $15 an hour at the beginning of the yr as a part of a deal hammered out between former Gov. Charlie Baker, former House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Senate President Karen Spilka in 2018.
Raise Up spokesman Andrew Farnitano stated the coalition’s newest iteration of the poll query committee was “formed for the purpose of building shared prosperity in the commonwealth through higher minimum wages and fair and adequate taxation.”
“Raise Up Massachusetts is working to increase the minimum wage because the low-wage workers who make our economy work need higher wages to keep up with record-breaking inflation, deal with the high cost of living in Massachusetts, and rise out of poverty,” Farnitano informed the Herald.
The Massachusetts for Mental Health Options committee stated it’s seeking to promote a coverage that may give adults in Massachusetts entry to “regulated psychedelic therapy and remove criminal penalties for personal possession of these medicines.”
“Importantly, this is not for retail sales and not for take home,” stated Ben Unger, who works for New Approach, a gaggle that efficiently pushed by way of questions on psychedelic therapies in Colorado and Oregon.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association filed a poll query awaiting a call from Campbell that may finish the usage of the MCAS. Another union, 32BJ SEIU, can also be eyeing a possible query.
“As 2024 is expected to be a busy year for ballot initiatives in Massachusetts, 32BJ has filed paperwork to form a committee so we can have the ability to defend worker’s rights in this arena if necessary,” stated Roxana Rivera, head of 32BJ SEIU in Massachusetts.
Other questions filed with the lawyer basic’s workplace coated the suspension of the state’s fuel tax — a subject that generated vital debate final summer time — and zero-emission automobiles, zero-emission dwelling heating methods, and residential photo voltaic powered electricy.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”