A plan by the state Senate to alter their self imposed guidelines and permit the physique’s president to serve limitless phrases is being met with concern by a authorities transparency group.
“To see the Senate backslide on this critical issue of democracy and power-sharing is deeply troubling. The senate president has nearly unfettered control over the passage of legislation in that chamber. Allowing someone to hold this position indefinitely enables them to further concentrate that power and pass the torch to a hand-picked successor,” Erin Leahy, govt director of anti-corruption group Act on Mass, instructed the Herald.
After the House eliminated time period limits for the highly effective place of Speaker a few decade in the past, it comes as maybe no shock that the state Senate, on Thursday, will try the identical.
State Sen. Michael Rodrigues has proposed a guidelines modification to take away the president’s eight-year time period restrict and stated in an announcement to the press the change would catch the Senate as much as the House and govt, in addition to each the minority leaders, who at the moment haven’t any such limits.
Senate President Karen Spilka, a Democrat representing Ashland, was capable of achieve unanimous consent to take the reins of the 40-member physique for a 3rd full time period this January.
Her first time period began with the early departure of her predecessor in July of 2018, although, which means she would hit the time period restrict not lengthy earlier than the tip of the subsequent Legislative session, in the summertime of 2026.
Senators, on Wednesday, have been assembly in non-public on the State House forward of the foundations vote. Support for the thought among the many Senators leaving the assembly, who will vote on the plan tomorrow after which discover out who will get the perfect paying jobs, appeared blended.
Rodrigues at the moment chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee which has lengthy been used as a springboard to guide the Senate — that’s the place Spilka and plenty of previous presidents have been earlier than taking the helm — and although the rule change would appear to assist him least of all if he was planning to make the identical bounce it could profit whoever does have the highest job, Leahy says.
“This creates a lineage of legislative leaders that are more like royalty than they are truly democratically elected. The cost of eliminating this term limit for Massachusetts voters is clear: the more power in the hands of the senate president, the less power their senators have to represent them,” she stated.
Herald wire providers contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”