Questions abound in certified Mass. ballot petitions
Lawmakers had their first chance this past week to weigh in on the seven proposed ballot initiatives vetted by both the attorney general and secretary of state.
And one key kingmaker, House Speaker Ron Mariano, had some interesting takes on a few of the most controversial measures, at which the Legislature will get the first crack.
Secretary of State William Galvin sent seven proposed initiative petitions to the Legislature, whose members can take them up or leave weightier matters — such as eliminatingmcas tests as a highschool graduation requirement — for voters to decide in the November 2024 elections.
Galvin certified that campaigns behind each of the proposed questions had collected signatures from at least the required 74,574 registered voters.
Measures that cleared that major signature hurdle would:
• explicitly allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature (94,404 signatures certified);
• eliminate a requirement that students obtain sufficient MCAS scores to attain a high school diploma (101,511 signatures);
• allow drivers for platforms like Uber and Lyft to unionize (83,788 signatures);
• eliminate the separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers (84,804 signatures);
• legalize natural psychedelic substances such as psilocybin mushrooms (96,277 signatures).
Those seven include two versions of an industrybacked question deeming app-based drivers as independent contractors while giving them some new benefits (91,666 and 90,112 certified signatures, respectively).
On the MCAS, Mariano, a former teacher, said he has “never been a BIGMCAS reformer,” signaling his apparent opposition to the charge led by the Massachusetts Teachers Association to remove the exams as a graduation mandate, an opinion we share with the speaker.
“MCAS was something we put a great thought and effort into, and we gave an awful lot of money to the educational system when we passed the ed reform bill with the understanding that there had to be some degree of accountability,” Mariano told the State House News Service among others Wednesday.
The bid to eliminate the separate, lower minimum wage for tipped workers has gained the support of One
Fair Wage, a national group backing 2024 ballot campaigns in Arizona, Ohio, California, Michigan and Massachusetts to increase minimum wages.
In Massachusetts, it aims to compel businesses to eventually pay tipped workers the same minimum wage as every other employee.
Under existing law, tipped employees must be paid at least $6.75 an hour, as long as gratuities bring their total pay up to $15 per hour, with employers responsible for making up the difference.
Mariano, who had a key role in passing that language and other components of a 2018measure dubbed the “grand bargain,” seemed to believe that’s a question best left to the voters.
“Tipped wages is a real sticky issue,” he said. “It’s a difficult issue for both sides. You can be sympathetic to the waiters who are making their living on tips, but you could also be sympathetic to the business owners who are trying tomake a profit. If you start adding 15 to 20% onto the price of a meal, it gets to the point where people stop going.”
On its face, we don’t see why the current wage scale should change. Those workers counting on tips — especially in a restaurant setting — enjoy the best of both worlds.
They’re usually the highest compensated employees, with a guarantee of making at least as much as other workers.
Lawmakers have three options for each proposed ballot question: They can approve it as written, suggest a substitute version or take no action.
If they don’t act by April 30, each ballot campaign must collect another 12,429 voter signatures and file them with local officials by June
19, then with the secretary of state’s office by July 3.
Measures clearing that hurdle and any potential court challenges can then go before voters at the Nov. 5, 2024 statewide election.
Lawmakers have historically passed on making uncomfortable decisions on highly charged questions, like letting the auditor delve into their inner workings.
However, with voter sentiment decidedly behind Auditor Diana Dizoglio’s effort to shed some light on that closed shop, might lawmakers amend that question to allow some oversight at the margins?
It sets up some intriguing scenarios as this legislative session unfolds.