|
Help save yourself
— join CLT
today! |
CLT introduction and membership application |
What CLT saves you from the auto excise tax alone |
Ask your friends to join too |
Visit CLT on Facebook |
CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Sen. Rosenberg takes another
stab at killing ballot questions
The revised bill (S
2264) was released Monday by the Senate Committee on Ethics and
Rules, chaired by Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg, and scheduled
for debate on Tuesday. A similar bill cleared the House in late
June....
One section added by Rosenberg’s committee would
require, starting in 2015, that the voter guides mailed to citizens
prior to an election include a brief note written by the Executive
Office of Administration and Finance explaining the expected impact
of a ballot question on state and municipal government finances.
State House News Service
Monday, July 21, 2014
Senate Elections Bill allows bigger donations, forces disclosure
This provision reflects Sen. Rosenberg’s ongoing
determination to kill the initiative petition process, which he
apparently sees as a threat to one-party rule, bringing in the
electorate itself (your constituents) as it does. We are asking
Senators to remove this provision, which has already been rejected
by the House.
CLT Memo to the State Senate
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Warning it may make it more difficult for any
initiative petition to be approved, Citizens for Limited
Taxation is calling on the state Senate to strike from its
campaign finance bill (S
2264) a provision requiring voter guides - in addition to
statements describing the impacts of “yes” and “no” votes on
ballot questions - to also include a note from the Executive
Office of Administration and Finance assessing the impact of a
ballot question on state and municipal government finances.
In a memo released Tuesday, ahead of
afternoon debate on the bill, CLT noted the provision was
dropped in House-Senate conference committee talks on a previous
election-related bill and suggested the measure would enable a
“hostile governor” to direct his budget chief to “write a note
claiming that ‘the initiative would cost too much; prove that it
wouldn’t.’” ...
A CLT official said the group has contacted
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr’s office to urge him to
sponsor an amendment striking the measure. CLT's Barbara
Anderson said Sen. Robert Hedlund and Rep. Brian Dempsey were
helpful in dropping the measure from early voting legislation
that was ultimately signed into law.
State House News Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
CLT opposed Senate plan to put fiscal not on ballot question
A motion by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr
to print amendments to a super PAC disclosure bill cut short
Tuesday's Senate session and postponed further consideration of
the bill until Wednesday.
State House News Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Tarr motions delays for a day debate on SuperPAC-Donations bill
|
|
Barbara Anderson's CLT
Commentary
Last spring state Senator Stanley Rosenberg
(D-Amherst) — long an enemy of the
initiative petition process — placed a
provision in an elections issue bill that would require a “fiscal impact
statement” from the Secretary of Administration and Finance be printed
along with the already-required ballot titles and Yes-No arguments. Sen.
Bob Hedlund (R-Weymouth) gave us a heads-up on that provision, and we
defeated it.
See: CLT News Release, Mar. 28, 2014:
S. 1981, an Act to Kill the Initiative and Referendum Process
More from
Barbara's Facebook Page:
This week, we got a heads-up from House Minority
Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading) about another election issue
bill to which Rosenberg just attached that same language in the
Senate version. A vote is expected [on Wednesday]. Sen. Hedlund has
filed an amendment to remove the offensive provision.
CLT is waiting for the state Senate debate to
begin on the Election Laws bill that came out of Committee with
another of Sen. Stan Rosenberg's attacks on the initiative petition
process in it. He wants to require the Secretary of State's red
voter information booklet to carry a statement from a governor's
Secretary of Administration and Finance about the fiscal impact of
any initiative petition.
Can you see it now? "Any tax cut or limit: this
will be the end of civilization as we know it
— prove that it won't." Thanks to Minority Leader Brad Jones
for calling our attention to this Monday night. We expect Sen. Bruce
Tarr (R-Gloucester) will be trying to remove the language today.
FYI — It was state
Sen. Bob Hedlund, our go-to guy on initiative petition issues, who
first brought this Rosenberg language to our attention last spring
when it was in a bill on voter registration. With the help of
Minority Leader Brad Jones and House Republicans, House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill), and Secretary
of State Bill Galvin, we were able to remove the language. Now it
shows up in a bill on election law disclosure. With Sen. Rosenberg
expected to become Senate President next year, I expect we'll be
seeing attacks on the initiative petition process popping out in all
kinds of bills.
|
 |
|
 |
|
Barbara Anderson |
|
|
|
|
|
State House News Service
Monday, July 21, 2014
Senate Elections Bill allows bigger donations, forces disclosure
By Matt Murphy
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JULY 21, 2014….With the September primary
elections seven weeks away, the Senate on Tuesday will debate a
revised campaign finance bill that would force super PACs into the
timely disclosure of contributors in an attempt by lawmakers to add
transparency to the political process in the wake of the Supreme
Court’s Citizens United decision.
The bill would double the individual campaign contribution limit to
$1,000 a year, but the first change to the donation limits in 20
years would not take effect until January. The bill also allows
state committees to set up legal defense funds, and authorizes
statewide candidate committees to donate up to $100 to another
candidate, but not more than an aggregate total of $1,500 a year to
other candidates.
The revised bill (S
2264) was released Monday by the Senate Committee on Ethics and
Rules, chaired by Majority Leader Stanley Rosenberg, and scheduled
for debate on Tuesday. A similar bill cleared the House in late
June.
The bill would require super PACs, which are independent expenditure
committees allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to
influence elections, to disclose the sources of their funding within
seven days of making an expenditure. That disclosure window would
shrink to 24 hours starting 10 days before a primary or general
election.
“We tried to keep it fairly close,” Rosenberg said Monday, referring
to relatively small number of changes his committee made to the
House bill.
The court's free speech ruling in Citizens United opened up
opportunities for super PACs to accept unlimited donations from
unions and corporations, as well as wealthy individuals, as they
seek to influence the outcomes of elections.
Several super PACs have already been established in Massachusetts
with an eye toward the fall elections, and one group funded by the
American Federation of Teachers spent heavily in the final days of
last year’s mayoral election in Boston without revealing the source
of the funding until after election day.
Despite some outside lobbying for changes to requirements that super
PACs list their top five donors at the end of television, Internet
or print ads, Rosenberg said the committee bill preserves the House
language and adds a requirement that ad sponsors also include a
statement directing viewers to the Office of Campaign and Political
Finance website for more detailed information on donors.
The revised bill also makes clear that the “top 5” requirement
applies to super PAC ads run in connection with ballot questions,
but does not cover radio advertisements.
“It’s a terrific bill. I’m glad the top five donor disclosure is in
there. I think it’s a clearer, more enforceable provision,” said Pam
Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts.
Wilmot said she hoped the differences with the House could be ironed
out quickly after Tuesday’s expected favorable vote, preferably
without going to a six-member conference committee.
“We really need this for the upcoming elections. There’s going to be
an astronomical amount of money spent by super PACs and other
outside groups and we really need this information,” Wilmot said.
The bill’s release was delayed by about a week as Senate leaders
considered changes to the House legislation, including suggestions
made by Secretary of State William Galvin to close a loophole that
has allowed some candidates to withhold the names of individual
donors until the end of a reporting cycle even though they have
already deposited the funds into their campaign accounts. Galvin
said some Republican candidates have been exploiting the loophole,
including his opponent David D’Arcangelo.
“We took a look at that and think that’s a good idea,” said
Rosenberg, adding that it might get added on the floor through an
amendment.
Rosenberg also said that the bill does not address Galvin’s concerns
about complying with a new law before the Sept. 9 primary that
requires the transliteration of candidate names on Boston ballots
into Chinese and Vietnamese, but said he expected an amendment to be
filed for that as well.
One section added by Rosenberg’s committee would require, starting
in 2015, that the voter guides mailed to citizens prior to an
election include a brief note written by the Executive Office of
Administration and Finance explaining the expected impact of a
ballot question on state and municipal government finances.
While the bill does not change the maximum cash contribution limit
of $50, it does allow contributions of up to $100 by money order or
bank check. Wilmot said she believed her organization “could live
with” the change because money orders and bank checks “can still be
traced, even if it’s more difficult.”
—
CLT MEMO TO
THE STATE SENATE —
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Re: The Election Laws bill that is on its way
to the Senate floor
To: Members of the Massachusetts Senate;
The State House News Service reports: “One
section added by Rosenberg’s committee would require, starting in
2015, that the voter guides mailed to citizens prior to an election
include a brief note written by the Executive Office of
Administration and Finance explaining the expected impact of a
ballot question on state and municipal government finances.”
As we successfully argued when this provision was
defeated in the House, this provision could make it unnecessarily
difficult for almost any group to pass almost any initiative
petition, since a hostile governor could direct his A&F Secretary to
write a note claiming that “the initiative would cost too much;
prove that it wouldn’t.”
This provision reflects Sen. Rosenberg’s ongoing
determination to kill the initiative petition process, which he
apparently sees as a threat to one-party rule, bringing in the
electorate itself (your constituents) as it does. We are asking
Senators to remove this provision, which has already been rejected
by the House.
State House News Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
State Capitol Briefs - Lunch edition
CLT opposed Senate plan to put fiscal not on ballot question
By Michael Norton
Warning it may make it more difficult for any initiative petition to
be approved, Citizens for Limited Taxation is calling on the state
Senate to strike from its campaign finance bill (S
2264) a provision requiring voter guides - in addition to
statements describing the impacts of “yes” and “no” votes on ballot
questions - to also include a note from the Executive Office of
Administration and Finance assessing the impact of a ballot question
on state and municipal government finances.
In a memo released Tuesday, ahead of afternoon debate on the bill,
CLT noted the provision was dropped in House-Senate conference
committee talks on a previous election-related bill and suggested
the measure would enable a “hostile governor” to direct his budget
chief to “write a note claiming that ‘the initiative would cost too
much; prove that it wouldn’t.’”
As the News Service reported Monday, the provision was added by Sen.
Stanley Rosenberg’s Ethics and Rules Committee.
CLT alleged the provision “reflects Sen. Rosenberg’s ongoing
determination to kill the initiative petition process . . . “
The Senate bill calls for a statement of not more than 100 words and
outlines a process whereby any 50 voters pay petition the Supreme
Judicial Court to require that the statement be amended, with the
court required to issue an order requiring an amendment only if it
is clear that the statement is “false, misleading or inconsistent”
with the requirements of the law.
If the measure survives continuing debate over the bill, the
provision would begin to take effect in 2015, after this year’s
elections.
A CLT official said the group has contacted Senate Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr’s office to urge him to sponsor an amendment striking the
measure. CLT's Barbara Anderson said Sen. Robert Hedlund and Rep.
Brian Dempsey were helpful in dropping the measure from early voting
legislation that was ultimately signed into law.
State House News Service
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
State Capitol Briefs - Afternoon edition
Tarr motions delays for a day debate on SuperPAC-Donations bill
By Michael Norton
A motion by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr to print amendments to
a super PAC disclosure bill cut short Tuesday's Senate session and
postponed further consideration of the bill until Wednesday. Tarr
suggested support for the bill from Senate Republicans and said
printing the amendments would lead to a more productive debate on
the bill on Wednesday.
Election Laws Committee Co-chairman Sen. Barry Finegold
unsuccessfully bid to change Tarr's mind by cautioning that delaying
action on the bill may threaten its ultimate success since it's
likely that a House-Senate conference committee will need to hammer
out a consensus bill in time for a vote by July 31, when formal
sessions end for the year.
Senators have filed 12 amendments to the bill (S
2264).
|
| |
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
BACK TO CLT
HOMEPAGE
|