Advocacy in Action

The House and Senate both passed extensive economic development bills in July, building on the bill filed by Governor Healey in April, and these bills are now in a conference committee. These bills advance several Council priorities aimed at strengthening the Commonwealth’s innovation economy.

The Council submitted testimony on the Governor’s proposal in May and recently sent a letter to legislative leadership outlining our priorities for what should (and shouldn’t) emerge in the final compromise legislation.

Another conference committee is considering reforms to the ballot initiative process. These bills would impose new restrictions on the gathering of signatures for initiative petitions, revise campaign finance reporting requirements for ballot question committees, and set up a commission to consider additional reforms.

The initiative petition process remains one of the Commonwealth’s most important constitutional safeguards, providing citizens with a meaningful avenue to advance policy proposals when issues of broad public concern are not receiving timely legislative consideration. As an indication of the voter frustration that has led to a proliferation of ballot questions, citizens have already filed eighteen proposals for the 2028 ballot, a year in advance of the deadline for such proposals.

At the same time, recent election cycles have revealed several deficiencies with the current system that warrant reform. Notably, a widely popular income tax cut proposal was removed from this year’s ballot by the Supreme Judicial Court because of deficiencies in the summary of the question written by the Attorney General.

The Council sent a letter to this conference committee expressing our support for reforms that will improve transparency and accountability without making the process unnecessarily burdensome or favoring one constituency over another.

House and Senate negotiators are also working to reconcile differences between House and Senate bills establishing a consumer data privacy framework.

The Council supports reasonable protections for consumers while encouraging lawmakers to adopt a balanced approach that safeguards innovation and avoids unnecessary compliance burdens, particularly for smaller and growing businesses. The Council joined a coalition of business organizations urging the Legislature to enact a practical, balanced data privacy framework.

In June, the Legislature and Governor approved Council-backed early literacy legislation that expands evidence-based reading instruction and will help more students build the foundational skills needed for lifelong success.

Additionally, now that the July 31 deadline for most legislative action has passed, any controversial legislation that wasn’t finalized or placed into a conference committee is unlikely to advance this legislative session. That includes a bill, opposed by the Council, that would have increased corporate taxes for certain multinational companies. We are glad to see the Legislature disregard this misguided proposal.

As conference committees continue their work on several major bills, the Council will remain actively engaged to advance policies that strengthen Massachusetts’ innovation economy, improve competitiveness, and expand opportunity across the Commonwealth. We will continue to keep members informed as these issues move forward in the months ahead. As always, please contact me at elizabeth@mhtc.org to learn more about these priorities or share your organization’s perspective.