Massachusetts
Given the final word yesterday on a controversial town sewering project, a strong majority of Barnstable voters stayed silent. A citizen ballot initiative seeking to overturn the Barnstable Town Council’s decision to extend sewering around parts of Stewarts Creek failed to produce the 20 percent of voters necessary to validate the election.
Attorney General Martha Coakley gave the initial go ahead to 23 ballot initiatives today, including a push to eliminate tolls in the Bay State. Coakely reviewed 30 petitions to see if they passed constitutional muster, and now those hoping to get the questions on a ballot must collect nearly 66,600 signatures of registered voters. “After a complete and thorough review by our office, we have concluded that most of these initiative petitions have met the requirements posed in the state’s Constitution,” Coakley said in a statement.
A ballot question that would reduce the sales tax to 3 percent is expected to be approved by the state attorney general today. “Taxes in Massachusetts are a back-breaking burden on workers, businesses that provide jobs and our families,” said Carla Howell charwoman of the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, the group sponsoring the initiative. “Our tax roll back is designed to relieve the tax burden shouldered by 3.4 million workers.”
Advocates hoping to place questions on next year’s ballot are coming up to their first major hurdle. Wednesday is the deadline for Attorney General Martha Coakley to decide whether each question is eligible for the ballot. Under the Massachusetts Constitution certain subjects are barred from initiative petitions, including those relating to religion, the courts, and certain provisions of the state Declaration of Rights.
Do you think it’s possible, in an age where so many of us get our information online, to harness the internet’s powers of communication as a tool for state-level direct democracy?
Pro-online poker Massachusetts activists have wasted no time in launching an initiative in order to gather the public support necessary for a legalisation proposal to be included on next year’s ballot. Associated Press reports that the Internet, paid help and networks of volunteers are all being mobilised to collect the tens of thousands of voter signatures needed to make the cut. By law, activists must gather signatures equal to 3 percent of the total of all votes cast for governor during the last state election.
The ballot question to finance a new library sparked outrage among some in town when it was put up for consecutive votes. Now, outspoken library opponents are seeking to change the law to prevent that from happening again. Precinct 6 Town Meeting member James P. Taylor is circulating a petition to put an article on the Town Meeting warrant that would prohibit any failed Proposition 2 1/2 override vote from appearing on another ballot for two years.
Charter school supporters file a ballot question Wednesday that would allow for an unlimited number of charter schools in Massachusetts. Special-interest groups face a 5 p.m. deadline to file initiatives with the attorney general for the November 2010 ballot. Gov. Deval Patrick proposes to double the number of charter schools in districts with the lowest MCAS scores. But supporters worry that plan will not get through the Legislature. They say if the governor’s proposal does pass, they may drop the initiative.
Supporters of a plan to end the Massachusetts’ main affordable housing law are trying again. Critics of the law filed a proposed ballot question with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office on Tuesday.
Toll opponents are hoping to give Massachusetts voters a chance to have their say during next year’s election. The group Citizens Against Road Tolls filed two ballot questions with Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office Tuesday, both of which would require the state to eliminate tolls on the Massachusetts Turnpike, Tobin Bridge and Boston Harbor tunnels by Jan. 1, 2012.
The states 6.25% sales tax could pack a whollop for package store profits. The alcohol tax that went into effect yesterday lifted a long-standing tax exemption on bay state booze. Governor Patrick said it had to be done to help the state balance the budget and it could bring in up to $80-million in revenue.
A citizens’ initiative to put the landfill expansion before the voters died on the City Council table Thursday, but it could come back to life as soon as Monday. The petition asks: “Shall the city of Northampton expand the Northampton landfill over the Barnes Aquifer?” The council tabled the matter at its last meeting after a group of citizens presented it during the public comment session. Councilors Michael A. Bardsley and Marianne L. LaBarge offered their own identically worded ballot question at that same meeting.
Just days before the Commonwealth is set to start taxing alcohol sales, the Massachusetts Package Stores Association yesterday said it is planning to file a ballot initiative to make liquor exempt from sales tax. State lawmakers voted last month to increase the Massachusetts sales tax to 6.25 percent from 5 percent and eliminate the longtime exemption for alcohol sold in liquor stores. The new rate goes into effect Saturday. Officials have estimated that taxing liquor will raise nearly $80 million for the cash-strapped state government.
As the mentioned here, the most famous Massachusetts initiative petition is known as “Proposition 2 1/2”, which just happens to be a perfect example of the fusion between the state and local level I&R processes in the Commonwealth. Ever since Prop. 2 1/2 passed in 1982, voters in a municipality must pass a “Proposition 2 1/2 override” to increase property taxes beyond 2.5% of the assessed value of all taxable property contained in it the municipality. Towns rarely do pass Prop. 2 1/2 overrides.
If you’re an advocate of the initiative and referendum process, you should hold Massachusetts in high regard. Although the state currently ties with Oklahoma in having the most restrictive process out of the fifteen states that offer residents full initiative, referendum, and constitutional amendment rights, the open town meeting model that has characterized local governance in the Commonwealth since the 17th century has been the longstanding model for the philosophy of citizen initiated lawmaking that is central to the I&R process.