Massachusetts Legislature Voting Trends: 2019-2023
The Massachusetts legislature recently passed the fiscal year 2024 state budget, the largest in the Commonwealth’s history. Along with the budget, the legislature has invested time in numerous issues affecting Massachusetts, spanning from education to transportation. Across legislative sessions, priorities have shifted depending on national circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic, elections, and civil rights protests. In this blog, we highlight the top legislative voting categories across both the House and Senate before, during, and after the pandemic to identify trends in legislative priorities.
2023-2024 Session
House of Representatives
The House has voted 32 times so far this session, mostly in areas surrounding state finance, the legislative process, and taxation. State finance votes have included enacting legislation like HB58, which authorized extensions for COVID-19 programs and allocated funds for housing and food assistance programs. Most state finance votes revolved around passing the 2024 fiscal year budget. The House cast 11 votes on the budget, spanning from amendments to final passage. HB4040 was engrossed by the House with a 156-2 vote and later passed by the Senate on July 31st, which made Massachusetts one of the last states in the nation to enact a FY2024 budget. Since budget season recently concluded, it is normal to see more votes about state finances at this point in the session.
The House has also focused votes on issues surrounding the legislative process. HB2023 established the rules and procedures for the 2023-2024 legislative session, and was unanimously approved by the chamber. Most votes on the legislative process were on amendments to HB2023, including Amendment #12 which would have allowed members an hour (rather than 30 minutes) to review consolidated amendments before consideration. This amendment failed to pass the chamber in a 23-130 vote. This is important because at the beginning of legislative sessions, the chamber must establish the governing rules before they can vote on anything else. This trend of early votes about the legislative process can be seen across all three sessions.
Taxation has also been a leading category of votes in the House this session. Most votes have been on amendments to HB3770, which aims to “increase competitiveness, affordability, and equity” in the Commonwealth. Amendment #3, which was struck down in a 25-129 vote, would have removed the section of the omnibus tax reform bill that lifts the stabilization cap fund from 15% to 25.5% before transfers are made to the Tax Reduction Fund. Votes about taxation are not surprising, as most bills consider funding before anything else.
Senate
Most votes that have been held in the Senate this session have been about the legislative process, human services, and taxation. SB18 was adopted after 13 votes, establishing the rules and procedures for the Senate during the 2023-2024 session. The Senate’s votes on human services were all on the adoption of amendments to the chamber’s appropriations for the FY2024 budget. Such amendments include Amendment #437, which provided funding for mental health awareness and suicide prevention programs in schools and communities. The Senate also voted on amendments to the legislature’s omnibus tax reform bill, including Amendment #26 which requires married couples to file a joint state return for any year that they file a joint federal tax return.
In both chambers, the passage of the FY2024 has dominated the votes that have been held so far this session. Each chamber has also voted dramatically less compared to the two previous legislature sessions. In the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 sessions, the House voted 90 and 89 times respectively by the August recess compared to the 32 times the current House has voted in the same timeframe. This may be due to the increased time that it took to pass the FY2024 budget and the removed necessity to pass immediate legislation that was needed during the pandemic.
2021-2022 Session
House of Representatives
In 2021, the House’s votes also focused on state finance and the legislative process. However, state finance votes during this session were mainly on COVID-19 relief funding. HB4219 was the culmination of the House’s work to support pandemic relief programs, and allocated $3.65 billion in federal and state funding. State finance votes also included legislation such as HB4532, which made appropriations to the FY2022 budget for expenses relative to COVID-19. This bill was engrossed by the House, but not signed into law.
Votes on rules and procedures for the legislative process accounted for 69 House votes during the 2021-2022 session. Most votes were for amendments to the proposed House Rules for the session, including Amendment #1 which allowed for House members on active reserve military duty to participate remotely in formal sessions. The amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Patrick Kearney (D-Scituate), is an active member of the US Navy Reserve, and for him and other legislators who are military reserve members, this vote was necessary in order for them to work. Reserve members were eligible to be called into service during the pandemic, therefore making this vote necessary in the case legislators were called into duty and still needed to participate in legislative affairs.
Senate
During the 2021-2022 session, the Senate voted the most on legislation surrounding human services and state government much like the current 2023-2024 cycle.. 42% of the human services votes focused on veterans and the military followed by mental health (24%), children and families (15%), and public assistance (12%). The increased number of votes about the military and veterans is due to the overhaul of long-term care facilities for veterans after 84 veterans died at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home from a COVID-19 outbreak. HB3770 provided $400 to the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance to design and reconstruct Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. The chamber also voted on bills about other social issues to help aid residents during the pandemic. The Senate’s proposed COVID-19 recovery bill, SB2564, included the allocation of relief funds to the Greater Boston Food Bank to increase food security investments. As the price of living continues to increase, the legislature has attempted to narrow the increasing wage gap through these social programs. This wage gap was exposed during the pandemic, and the response from the government is noted in the uptick in legislation surrounding human services.
The Senate also held numerous votes on issues that impacted state government affairs during the 2021-2022 session. The chamber voted eleven times on legislation that covered elections and voting procedures in the Commonwealth such as SB2924. Commonly known as the VOTES Act, this legislation permanently expanded access to vote-by-mail and in-person early voting after the 2020 election in response to the attention on early voting and absentee ballots.
The legislature also had many votes dedicated to land taking during the 2021-2022 session. Land taking is the process in which the state government utilizes land in municipalities. Such land taking legislation included HB4077, which authorized the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to acquire parcels of state land in Needham that were under the control of the Department of Conservation and Recreation for highway construction. This vote is similar to the many others cast about land taking, as many of the bills were on the transfer of land between government entities.
During this session, the legislature was primarily concerned with COVID-19 funding and election laws, which is reflective of the national circumstances during that time. Federal relief funding allowed for the Commonwealth to allocate money towards social programs, protecting the most vulnerable during the pandemic. The Democratic-led legislature’s passage of the VOTES Act came during a time when Republican state legislators across the country began introducing restrictive election laws after the January 6th insurrection in 2021.
2019-2020 Session
House of Representatives
During the 2019-2020 session, voting in the House also focused on state government, the legislative process, and land taking. The chamber voted on a number of state government matters, 13 of which focused on campaign finance. The House Committee on Ways and Means sponsored HB4087, which accounted for all of the campaign finance votes in the House during the legislative session. The bill, which was enacted unanimously by the chamber, established a commission to select a director of campaign and political finance.
Public safety was also a key voting category in the House during the 2019-2020 session. Of these, 63% focused on police and fire matters. The chamber voted on amendments for HB4860, which was an act for law enforcement accountability and equity. During the time of this session, the country witnessed the Black Lives Matter movement and increase in public support for police reform. This may have influenced the rise in public safety votes, as state legislatures across the country passed law enforcement reform in the months following the death of George Floyd.
Senate
In the 2019-2020 session, the Senate voted on issues such as the legislative process and the state government, similar to its successive sessions. During the first month of the session, 100% of the votes held were about the legislative process. This included voting on amendments for SB9, which established rules and governing procedures for the 2019-2020 session. New rules from the bill include the requirement for roll call votes to be posted to the Internet within 48 hours. An amendment added by Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) required that if any motions or orders were to be extended over 30 days, there must be a complete list of reasons submitted before the extension would be granted. Along with legislation surrounding the governing rules, the Senate also voted on an array of bills on the state government. One of those bills included SB2848, which established a commission to study potential changes to the Commonwealth’s motto and seal after Native American leaders lobbied to change the design due to the history of colonization that it represented. Other state government legislation covered issues such as procurement, election laws, and campaign finance.
During this session, both chambers voted a significant amount for land taking legislation. In the House, 50 votes were held for land taking matters; and in the Senate, 52 votes were scheduled surrounding the matter.
Voting Trends Across Sessions
Through the last three legislative sessions, priorities and legislative trends have fluctuated. Land taking votes made up one of the largest vote categories in the 2019 and 2021 sessions, however there have been zero votes in both chambers on land taking during the 2023 session. Instead, the legislature has focused on fiscal and legislative process votes. The Senate’s seven human services votes is similar to that of the 2021 session, when the Senate voted on the issue eight times by the August recess. In both sessions, the Senate voted on bills about veterans and mental health.
Voting in 2023 Compared to Previous Years
The 2023-2024 legislature has voted significantly less than the last two legislative sessions. By the August recess, the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 legislatures had voted 181 and 162 times respectively. During this session, the legislature has voted only 93 times in the same time period. This drastic cut in voting may be due to the extensive budgeting process that took place until August 1st, with both chambers working to amend the $56 billion budget for passage. Along with the budget process, there is a lack of elector pressure. Massachusetts is a strong Democratic state, with 56% of adults identifying as a strong or lean Democrat. There is less pressure on legislators to stay competitive in the Democratic legislature, which allows them to take their time with passing bills.
Votes Depending on National Events
Voting categories may also differ due to national events at the time of the legislative session. In the 2021-2022 session, there was an increase in voting for human services due to the COVID-19 relief funding from the federal government. This has drastically reduced in the current legislative session, when the legislature has voted a combined seven times on human services issues, compared to the 16 votes in the 2021-2022 session by the August recess.
Along with the COVID-19 pandemic, other national events may have caused changes in voting trends between the legislative sessions. During the 2019-2020 session, there was an increase of votes on police matters and law enforcement reform, which was a response to the national protests surrounding police brutality. 94 votes were held on public safety matters in the legislature that session, compared to just 26 votes during the 2021-2022 session and 2 that have had a vote so far in the current session.
The January 6th, 2021 insurrection on the United States Capitol building influenced state legislatures across the country to adapt new laws on election security and voting access. In Massachusetts, the legislature not only voted on measures to expand voting rights but passed the historic VOTES Act, which permanently established universal vote-by mail and early voting in the Commonwealth. Due to this, there was an increase in the number of state government-related votes that took place during this session compared to others.
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