Boston hosted a state legislature palooza, surfacing nettling questions, including ballot petitions and AI issues

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Hosting more than 8,000 legislators, staff and guests from across the nation might seem like bad timing for Massachusetts lawmakers to face new ballot campaigns aimed at docking their pay and forcing open their records — or maybe it offered a chance to find allies who understand the pressure.

In the Seaport convention center, the National Conference of State Legislatures held a "Ballot Measures as Barometers" panel on Wednesday, the same day that folks across town were filing 2026 initiative petition language and signatures and thinking about the road to next fall's ballot.

Among the 47 measures residents and advocacy groups hope to put before voters (some duplicates) are proposals that seek to overhaul the financial stipends that legislative leaders award to many lawmakers, and subject the governor's office and Legislature to the state's public records law.

Ballot questions are already a tough sell among top Democrats in Massachusetts, who have at times criticized citizen-led proposals as poorly drafted, in need of legislative fixes, and as a patchwork approach to complex policy. They argue elected officials may be better positioned to craft such laws.

"The use of paying someone to go out and get signatures — I see a lot of high-stakes, special interest groups investing money in ballot questions," House Speaker Ron Mariano said of the Legislature-focused proposals, speaking to reporters after NCSL closing ceremonies on Wednesday.

House Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan, a panelist at the Wednesday event focused on ballot measures, said she has "agreed to disagree on some ballot issues" with constituents. "I find that it is a great way to show me sometimes where people want to move forward," she said.

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Massachusetts Democrats may have common ground with a Republican counterpart from the West Coast. Oregon Sen. Bruce Starr, who sat on the panel with Hogan, said legislative action is sometimes required to "fix what the voters have done" when they enact "very problematic" laws.

"It's relatively easy, if you have enough resources [and] money, to put questions in front of the voters in Oregon," said Starr, a Republican. "That's what happens in our state on a fairly regular basis. I would suggest some of those initiatives are positive and some are quite negative."

Auditor Diana DiZoglio backs the push to make the governor and Legislature follow the public records law. Massachusetts has some of the most opaque public records laws in the country. Perhaps lawmakers from Washington, New York, or North Carolina — where courts and attorneys general have ruled against legislative privilege in favor of more public access — spent time this week quietly envying their well-shielded Massachusetts colleagues.

If the public access ballot question became law, one thing legislators, staff and executive office officials may have to consider (as they were warned Tuesday by a Washington state official): whether their ChatGPT inquiries and responses count as public records.

"Is a prompt a public record, and how do we effectively manage that? If we're looking at the adoption of AI, we need to think of public records; at least in our state, we don't have a legislative exemption on public records, so we have to adhere to that," said Chad Dahl, group infrastructure manager for the Washington Legislature. "And so it's a big consideration that we take into play when we're looking at adopting AI platforms."

It's a big question as generative AI is becoming increasingly woven into the lawmaking process: an NCSL survey found that 20% of legislative staff said they used gen AI for legislative work in 2024, more than doubling to 44% by 2025. Even that amount is estimated to be a lowball.

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Other measures that set out on the long road to the 2026 ballot include a union-backed question to give public defenders, social workers, investigators and administrative staff at the Committee for Public Counsel Services the right to unionize.

The push comes after a months-long public battle on Beacon Hill has reached an apparent conclusion, for now. Private attorneys who take cases as bar advocates organized a work stoppage to advocate for raises, leading to dropped charges for some criminal defendants and anger from legislators who said the attorneys were "holding people's constitutional rights to counsel hostage." Still, they secured a $20 per hour raise over two years.

Gov. Maura Healey signed that raise into law this week, inside a $259 million spending package that also included funding to help the Department of Transitional Assistance roll out electronic benefits transfer chip cards.

The public defenders might have won some of what they were asking for — though not all of it, and some continue to point out that Massachusetts bar advocates receive the lowest rate in New England in the highest-cost state. But it's certainly not the end of this story, especially with a new push towards the ballot.

Healey also signed another new law tied to a ballot filing: abortion care.

The expanded shield law gives patients and providers in Massachusetts a stronger defense against out-of-state interference in reproductive and transgender care. At a time of enhanced federal scrutiny and legal threats largely led by Republicans in other states, supporters say the additional steps plug gaps in existing law in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Though Democrats have not pointed to specific threats within Massachusetts necessitating the expanded law, anti-abortion attorney Thomas Harvey is once again leading an effort to get the question directly before voters with an initiative petition to block taxpayer funding of abortion.

And even as Healey signed a new law explicitly designed to shield Massachusetts from red-state laws, the governor welcomed some of those very Republican state legislators into Boston with a message of bipartisanship that was, well, not exactly consistent throughout the week.

"It is inspiring to me as a governor to see so many elected officials who are willing to come together, to work together, irrespective of party or differences, learn from each other, with the ultimate goal of delivering results for the people you serve on the issues you care about," Healey said to an audience of hundreds of lawmakers and staff from across the country at the NCSL summit on Tuesday morning.

That afternoon, she met with Texas Democrats who left their state to block a mid-decade redistricting push that could give Republicans five more U.S. House seats. The off-cycle redistricting effort, led by President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, has prompted Democratic-led states to threaten the same tactic.

After meeting with the Texas Democrats, Healey's message was: "This is, to be really clear about it, a partisan, craven, political power grab attempt by the president of the United States, Governor Greg Abbott, and [Texas] AG Paxton."

In a matter of days, Beacon Hill had welcomed political rivals and friends, got in a defensive stance over their next transparency fight, and signed off on major laws — all while keeping the coffee hot for over 8,000 guests.

WEEKEND PLANNER

SALES TAX HOLIDAY: The state's sales tax holiday falls this weekend, and applies to most retail items up to $2,500 that are bought for personal use. Purchases from corporations or businesses are still taxable. Items that don't qualify for the sales tax holiday include meals, motor vehicles, motorboats, telecommunication services, gas, electricity, tobacco products, marijuana products, and alcoholic beverages. Clothing is also generally exempt unless the item costs more than $175.

SATURDAY

PRESSLEY DOCUMENTARY: A documentary about Ayanna Pressley, "She Dared to Dream: Ayanna Pressley", gets its world premiere as part of the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. Documentary was produced by NAACP Image Award winner Abby Ginzburg. (11 a.m., Martha's Vineyard Performing Arts Center, 100 Edgartown Vineyard Haven Road, Oak Bluffs | Tickets)

ISLAND VIBES DANCE PARTY: An "Islands Vibe" dance party at City Hall Plaza will feature the cultures of the African diaspora and Caribbean. The free event runs through 8 p.m. (3 p.m., 1 City Hall Square, Boston)

SUNDAY

WARREN ON KELLER: U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren joins MASSterList columnist Jon Keller's weekly segment to discuss the state of the economy, the status of federal funding for Massachusetts infrastructure projects, President Trump's firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and her ability to communicate with the executive branch. (8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV)

SEN. FRIEDMAN ON NBC: Sen. Cindy Friedman sits down with NBC 10 Boston reporter Matt Prichard. (9:30 a.m., NBC 10)

MBTA EMERGENCY RESPONSE: The MBTA holds an emergency training response exercise with a Blue Line train in the Orient Heights Yard area. Media and observers are invited to attend, and must arrive at 9:30 a.m. for a safety briefing ahead of the exercise at 10 a.m. Officials say there will be no service impacts, though Blue Line service is already suspended between Airport and Wonderland and replaced with shuttle buses from Aug. 9-17. "The learning exercise will include a scenario in which a subway train traveling on this section of Blue Line track experiences an unexpected incident," the MBTA advisory says. "Responders will face challenges that include extrication, treatment of injured riders, and the evacuation of passengers." The exercise is being held with the Revere Fire Department, Revere Police Department, Cataldo Ambulance and other public safety agencies. (10 a.m., Orient Heights Yard and Maintenance Facility, Boston)

ROONEY ON OTR: Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Jim Rooney joins hosts Ed Harding and Sharman Sacchetti on WCVB's weekly political talk show "On the Record." Democratic political analyst Mary Anne Marsh and Republican analyst Rob Gray will also join the show for a roundtable discussion.(11 a.m., WCVB)

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