10/04/2025 Saturday Scoop: If not lawmaking, what are our state reps up to?

Hello,

I love our community!

In last week’s Scoop, we did a deep dive into the murky world of the travel exemption in our state’s ethics laws, which allows elected officials to accept reimbursement for travel expenses. Thank you to those who reached out and let us know what you learned from your lawmakers’ disclosures with the State Ethics Commission.

In response, Scoop reader Nathan Story let us know he had recently put in a FOIA request for all the disclosures and statements of financial interest filed with the Commission since 2012 (!)These disclosures are now in a database that is searchable and public, making it much easier to access and analyze our representative’s disclosures. It always reassures me to know that when our elected officials hide things, citizens step up to make them accessible. Take a look at the database for yourself. Thanks Nathan!

Speaking of citizens stepping up, Act on Mass has a couple upcoming events to put on your radar.

The first is, of course, our State House 201 workshop, this coming Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. Join AOM Policy Fellow Sydney and I for a deep dive of finding information and votes on the legislature’s website, how to use that information in conversations with your legislator, and what to know about the state house’s power dynamics. Sign up here:

SIGN UP FOR STATE HOUSE 201>>

Second, as we ramp up towards the ballot, some of you may have already attended a training hosted by the Stipend Reform campaign. In response to requests, Act on Mass will be hosting our own short Stipend Reform Training: why we need this reform and how you can pitch in. Join Act on Mass Board Member Hewon and I for a quick Zoom training on October 14th, 7 - 7:30 pm.

SIGN UP FOR STIPEND REFORM TRAINING>>

Lastly, while we’re taking a small step back from Transparency on Tour to focus on the ballot question, we’ve still got districts coming up! Find us at Franklin Farmers Market next Friday 10/10, 2 pm - 6 pm. ☀️

---

State House Scoop

This week, much attention to legislative (dys)function focused on the U.S. Congress. Congressional lawmakers in Washington failed Tuesday to reach an agreement on a continuing resolution for government funding, leading to the shutdown of the federal government.

The shutdown will impact at least 30,000 federal workers in Massachusetts, who will be furloughed without pay. Several major tourist sites are closed. Worst of all, local reporting attests that the shutdown will “impact Halloween,” as sites in Salem face their busiest month of the year without a visitor’s center.

Not impacted? Trump’s immigration enforcement teams, who have pledged to continue their raids on Massachusetts residents despite the shutdown. Just this week, residents of Milford were again left without answers after another shocking detention of a teenage resident (paywall)– the third this year for the town. Also this week, federal agents at Logan Airport reportedly seized the phoneof a well-known Massachusetts immigration lawyer with active cases against ICE.

Perhaps it was this news that forced the House to finally accept HD.4886: An Act ensuring law enforcement identification and public trust for consideration. This bill would make it illegal at the state level for law enforcement to mask or disguise themselves in interactions with the public, to respond to the rise in immigrant abductions by masked and unidentified federal agents. Though the bill was late-filed in mid-July, it was not assigned to a committee until this week, in one of the few actions taken by the General Court this week. It is now sitting in the Judiciary Committee. Check that your representative is co-sponsoring this bill here.

Shutdown on Beacon Hill?

Indeed, on the whole, you’d think the Massachusetts General Court was also shut down this week. By my count, the Senate convened for 12 minutes on Monday (paywall) and 10 minutes on Thursday (paywall), both in informal sessions, advancing mostly local bills. Colin Young of State House News Service (SHNS) called it a “quiet week.”

It was a similar story in the House, which clocked a grand total of 35 minutes in session between Monday (paywall) and Thursday (paywall), also informal, also mostly local bills. Michael Norton of SHNS’s assessment is worth quoting in full:

“After kicking off a summer recess on July 30, the House returned from its break this month but held just one formal session in September to pass a $234 million health care funding bill that breezed through the chamber on Sept. 17 without debate. Joint legislative rules call for formal sessions to end this year by Wednesday, Nov. 19.... Democrats have not outlined concrete fall agendas.” (emphasis added)

As jobs go, not a bad gig, huh?

The distinction between formal and informal sessions is important. In informal sessions, no roll call votes are taken, and the objection of a single member can prevent an item from advancing. They are usually low-attended and reserved for non-controversial bills. In fact, the Senate session on Monday (paywall) enacted legislation with only two (2!) senators present– not exactly the most representative of democracies.

Formal sessions are higher attended and can feature roll call votes. These are often the only moments we get the chance to see our legislators actually debate, enact, and take a public stance on meaningful legislation. If our legislators are not meeting in formal session– and not even debating when they do– it’s not just a bad sign for efficiency. It’s a bad sign for democracy.

Outside of sessions, committees used to also host public “markup” sessions where they worked through legislation publicly. Restoring this practice is another feature of the stipend reform ballot question. If the ballot measure passes, the few committee chairs that would remain eligible for an additional stipend would be required to host public mark-up sessions for each of the committee’s bills for stipends to be disbursed. This would provide the public another opportunity to view deliberations between our lawmakers. It would also allow us to ensure that our lawmakers are actually involved in committee deliberations, rather than blindly following decisions made by the chair and members of leadership.

Legislators are representing us– just not on Beacon Hill

During the height of Transparency on Tour this summer, as we traveled and had conversations across the state, I noticed a pattern. Many folks knew their state representatives and even had personal relationships with them. This is what makes elected democracy at the state level so important: districts are small, affording us a closer relationship with those in power. However, when asked what they liked about their representative, people often referred to them as being very “present,” or “always around,” or mentioned a recent event that they had seen their representative at.

One Act on Mass supporter recently put it more bluntly to me: “it’s like [representatives] think going to ribbon-cuttings is their full-time job.” Indeed, I didn’t always have the heart to say to folks that while strong connections with the community are important, attendance at events in the district often comes at the cost of time on Beacon Hill.

Ultimately, we’re not paying our lawmakers a full-time salary to be an extra attendee at every community event hosted in our towns and cities. We’re paying them to be full-time on Beacon Hill: representing us in the halls of power, attending committee hearings and legislative sessions, building support among their colleagues for key legislation, and delivering on their policy promises.

So, the next time your lawmaker posts on social media about the tour they did of the Boston Harbor Islands, or their Monday luncheon at the senior center, or– while we're at it– the free 5-day trip to Israel they took, give it a "like" and then think to yourself: do I know what committee hearings my representative attended this week? There was an informal session, did they attend? How did they vote? What are they doing to push for action on the issues I care about? And send them an email. Or, if you catch them at the senior center, ask them in person.

ASK YOUR REP: WHAT POLICY ACTION ARE YOU TAKING?

And if you don't know how to find out if your rep was doing any of those things, sign up for State House 201! Also, make sure to scroll down and check out Lily's blog post for a few other things our legislative leaders are getting up to on our time.

Worth reading: more stories from this week

Some other stories from this week:

The costs of delayed action on Beacon Hill were on display this week in a hearing on an emergency insulin access bill that has sat without action since 2019
Local businesses voice concerns about the Senate's data privacy bill passed last week (check last week's Scoop for background)
One of the few actions this week: the State's budget writers met for an unprecedented mid-year budget check-in to anticipate the state's response to federal cuts, with startling takeaways
In an interview with the Newton Beacon, Act on Mass gave our take on the ongoing blockage of the audit passed by voters in 2024.

---

Syd's Sprinkles: New Blog Post

Legislative leaders are spending big from their campaign accounts. Should this be legal?

Read a new blog post from Lily

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to have a second bank account you could charge hundreds of lavish purchases to? For our state lawmakers, they don’t have to imagine—apparently, that’s what their campaign account is for. We perused around OCPF, the state agency responsible for administering campaign finance laws. We found that some of the highest spenders in the State House—almost all of them members of leadership, notably—are spending hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars every year on fine dining, hotel stays, Amazon purchases, and—if you’re Senate President Spilka—a lease on an Audi SUV.

In Massachusetts, our weak campaign finance laws only specify that legislative candidates “may make expenditures so long as the expenditure is not primarily personal.” These purchases are therefore legal and spending can happen year-round.These lavish purchases are funded by donations to the lawmakers accounts. For these members of leadership, many of these donations come from lobbyists and special interest groups. Here are some of our findings:

No one spends more than Senate President Karen Spilka, who, despite running unopposed in every election since 2010, has managed to spend $526,992.20 just this year. Her “Annual Galentine’s Day Celebration” at City Winery Boston cost a staggering $28,205.08, plus another $1,857.25 in party favors from a candy shop in Salem. She’s spent $1,746.09 just on trips to Tatte. She uses the credit card attached to her campaign account to pay the monthly lease ($710 monthly payment) on her Audi SUV. During “Budget Week,” the Senate President dropped $1,355.52 on her stay at a luxury hotel (apparently she couldn’t drive the Audi from Framingham to Boston) and racked up a $2,178.55 check at the high-end Oceanaire Seafood House for “Dinner With Senators - Budget Week Prep.”

House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz has managed to spend $247,313.70 this year. He has made over $8,000 worth of Amazon purchases. He frequents restaurants across Boston where he racks up checks of several thousand dollars–he spent $2,240.63 on a trip to Gordon Ramsay Burgers Boston in July and another $4,665.30 at Forcella in the North End. He has spent $2,672.97 on trips to The ‘Quin House, a private, members-only social club in Boston. (I wonder what kind of campaigning the Ways and Means Chair gets up to there.) He also spent a whopping $25,500 on consulting in August alone. Michlewitz has run unopposed every year since 2009, when he was first elected.

House Majority Leader Michael Moran, who hasn’t faced a challenger since 2006, has spent $130,434.45 since January. He, too, is fond of wining and dining; the rep has spent $1,090.45 on trips to MOOO... Steakhouse, and another $8,289.43 on trips to the Oceanaire Seafood Room. One trip to Ruth’s Chris Steak House in July cost Moran $7,069.75, and a meal at Boston Chops Steak House in June cost him $1,530.00.

House Speaker Ron Mariano, whose spending was probed into by Boston Globe reporters in 2024, has spent $145,900.40 this year. $52,052.34 of that has been spent on consulting. In February, the Speaker dropped $4,000 on TD Garden Box Office “Event Catering.” Like the others, he spends hundreds on various restaurant meals, including at Ruth's Chris Steak House, Florina Pizzaria, and Figaro’s Boston. Ron Mariano has not faced a primary challenger since 1992 (!).

Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, who hasn’t seen a primary challenger since 2012, has spent $130,543.21 this session. Some highlights from his year include a $1,562.46 dinner at Smith & Wollensky—where steaks can run you up to $130 a piece—, a $1,403.61 Airbnb charge for “lodging during budget,” and a $221.29 charge at Jobi Liquors for “Refreshments For Sendoff For Ways & Means Staff.”

Massachusetts campaign finance law– which is written by (you guessed it!) the Legislature– is more lax in its requirements for legislators than other types of candidates. While statewide candidates must prove that their expenditures are “reasonable and necessary expenses directly related to the campaign of the candidate,” lawmakers’ can spend freely from their campaign accounts so long as the spending is not “primarily personal.”

It strikes us as very peculiar that candidates who rarely face electoral challenges would have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars year-round on things that seemingly have little to do with campaigning for votes in their district. In fact, immense spending by legislative leaders is an expression of Beacon Hill power structures. In the words of former State Rep Cory Atkins, “If you’re wined and dined, you think it’s because people have enormous respect for you and your ideas. They couldn’t care less. They’re putting you in their pocket so you play along.”

Check out your lawmaker's OCPF and see what they're spending on!

VIEW YOUR LAWMAKERS OCPF>>

---

Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.

---