{"id":1789,"date":"2026-06-02T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:06:08","slug":"mass-house-to-vote-on-legislation-subjecting-the-governor-but-not-itself-to-states-public-records-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1789","title":{"rendered":"Mass. House to vote on legislation subjecting the governor, but not itself, to state\u2019s public records law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Facing a ballot question, a lawsuit from the stateauditor, and calls to broaden what they share with the public, the Massachusetts House on Tuesday unveiledlegislationDemocratic leaders said would make the Legislature more transparent, but stopped short of subjecting it to the state\u2019s public records law.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The new legislation, which the House plans to vote on Wednesday, would apply that law for the first time to the governor\u2019s office, but not to lawmakers themselves, who are specifically exempt from following it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Massachusetts is the only state in the country where the governor, Legislature, and judiciary all claim to be completely exempt from the state\u2019s public records requirements. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, the bill would create a new statute allowing the public access to a \u201clegislative record,\u201d a tranche of documents that includes a swath of information ranging from votes to calendars to fiscal reports \u2014 much of which the Legislature already publicizes. <\/span><\/p>\n

House leaders indicated the proposal was a bid to stave off a proposal heading toward the November ballot that would apply the public records law to both the Legislature and Governor Maura Healey, who previously said she\u2019s open to subjecting her office to the law with the \u201cright exceptions.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also attempts to narrow specifically what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio is allowed to probe in the Legislature in a bid to head off litigation she filed to force lawmakers to comply with her audit demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voters passed a ballot question in 2024 giving DiZoglio authority to audit the Legislature, but lawmakers have long resisted complying with her demands, contendingthat any such effort would violate the constitutional separation of powers between branches.<\/span><\/p>\n

House Speaker Ron Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday thatthe bill would \u201cincrease access to public records from the executive and legislative branches, and establish a clear framework for legislative audits.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

The measures, he added, would both \u201censure greater transparency while respecting legislative privilege and the separation-of-powers principles outlined in the state Constitution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this legislation will put an end to protracted litigation, address an issue that may otherwise come before voters on the ballot, and allow the Legislature to refocus on the real issues facing Massachusetts residents,\u201d Mariano said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the House bill, DiZoglio would need to put audit requests in writing to the \u201cpresiding officer\u201d of the legislative branch or branches. Those officers would then have 60 days to respond with the requested records or an explanation for why they are not available.<\/span><\/p>\n

More importantly, the bill would limit the scope of information the auditor couldexamine, which the House said they limited to align with parameters suggested by the Supreme Judicial Court.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Specifically, the auditor wouldonly be able to access information about \u201cadministrative functions\u201d beginning in fiscal year 2021, which include the official budget for each chamber, copies of any official audit the Legislature conducts, all transactions \u201crelated to funds appropriated to the respective branch,\u201d and all monetary settlement agreements.<\/span><\/p>\n

DiZoglio has for months sparred with the lawmakers over the 2024 ballot question that would allow her to audit the Legislature.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Massachusetts Senate voted last week to turn over records DiZoglio sought, though it clarified that it \u201cdoes not concede\u201d to an audit if senators believe it is unconstitutional.<\/span><\/p>\n

DiZoglio quickly blasted the House\u2019s effort, casting it as a figurative dumpster fire. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith this proposed bill, and under the guise of transparency, your state representatives are not only throwing the 72 percent voter-mandated law in the dumpster \u2014 they\u2019re taking a match and lighting that dumpster on fire, violating the People\u2019s constitutional rights and undermining democracy,” DiZoglio said,referencing the share of voters who backed the 2024 proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill also wouldrequire each chamber to appoint a \u201cLegislative Records Access Officer\u201d to coordinate records requests and \u201cfacilitate timely production.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill dedicates $1 million to support \u201cimplementation costs,\u201d giving $250,000 apiece to the offices of the governor, House, Senate, and Joint Legislative Operations to pay for technology upgrades, management systems, and staffing associated with the new measures.<\/span><\/p>\n

The changes are aimed at neutralizing a question activists have fought to get on this fall\u2019s ballot, with DiZoglio\u2019s support.<\/span><\/p>\n

The House legislation received support from a mix of groups that havesupported greater transparency from the Legislature, including the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, and Common Cause Massachusetts, a nonpartisan good government group, whose leaders said the changes negate the need for the public records ballot question.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the public\u2019s demand for transparency, we believe this policy is best addressed directly by the legislature now to obviate the need for a ballot question,\u201d said Geoff Foster, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts. \u201cTransparency is a tool to create strong legislation that serves our state. This approach puts the politics to the side and gets back to good policymaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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The new legislation, which the House plans to vote on Wednesday, would apply that law for the first time to the governor\u2019s office, but not to lawmakers themselves, who are specifically exempt from following it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMass. House to vote on legislation subjecting the governor, but not itself, to state\u2019s public records law - Boston Relocation Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=1789\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mass. 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