The national elections sent a clear and resounding message to every elected official across the country.

Some are listening and adjusting to the message, while others are doubling down in denial. In Massachusetts, the legislature met on Thursday in an irregular, lame-duck session and based on their actions, it’s clear our legislative system and leadership is in denial.

There is no one in leadership willing to stand up for the voters, taxpayers, or ratepayers.

For some background, lawmakers eliminated lame-duck sessions in 1995 after a situation the year before when lawmakers approved a 55 percent pay raise for themselves post-election, which was immediately followed by the quiet passage of a capital gains tax cut. Now Beacon Hill leaders have ignored this rule and want to change it going forward.
 

As they met in this lame duck session on Thursday, they quietly passed two major pieces of legislation. One was the economic development bill that bonds almost $4 billion worth of waste including money for the failing offshore wind industry, and investments in the “alternative protein” industry among other pet projects. They also passed a controversial climate bill that takes away local control of permitting for green energy infrastructure, authorizes eminent domain, and mandates the utility purchase of a huge amount of grid scale batteries that will cost us tens of billions of dollars- read more about that here. They are doubling down with their authoritarian policy changes and throwing our money at a failing industry, essentially building a bridge to nowhere leaving taxpayers and ratepayers on the hook. It’s anyone’s guess why they’d want to pass these in the veil of post-election cover.

They also used this lame-duck session to pull a fast one on the voters who approved Question 1 at the ballot box. Every single municipality voted in support of Question 1, to audit the state legislature. The audit ballot question received the most votes of any candidate or ballot question this year in MA. That is the definition of a landslide victory! So how does House leadership respond? They try to play games to avoid the will of the voters in the guise of a lame duck session.

According to the state auditor, Diana DiZoglio, the Massachusetts House is ‘slapping voters in the face' with a rule change that will completely sidestep the will of the voters. On Thursday, House leadership adopted a rule change in response to the landslide victory that would allow them to bypass the scrutiny of the auditor’s office and essentially let them continue with the same lackluster reporting they’ve been doing all along.

Let us be clear: what the House passed is not at all what the voters approved and in no way a substitute for a legislative audit. The rule change would allow the state auditor to pick an outside auditing firm, but House leadership would continue to control the budget and scope of the audit.  To view a copy of the roll call vote, please click here.

These corrupt Beacon Hill politicians need to feel the heat! Please click here to demand your elected voices on Beacon Hill comply with the will of the voters and demand that legislative leadership abides by the results of question 1: https://www.votervoice.net/MASSFISCAL/campaigns/118953/respond

The more people flooding their offices, the harder it is for them to ignore us.

These legislative leaders are clearly still struggling with the reality of last week’s election results. They are in denial and are digging in their heels by becoming more corrupt. It’s our job as taxpayers and watchdogs to wake them up to reality.