Sam Drysdale
State House News Service

As they publicly opposed some ballot measures that could appear before voters in November, the two most powerful lawmakers in Massachusetts also called for more checks against the ballot initiative process in general. 

At a downtown Boston event hosted by MASSterList and State House News Service, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka did not hold back Wednesday about their scruples with "special interest groups" legislating by ballot rather than through the halls of the State House. 

Journalist Jon Keller asked them during the sit-down talk if they would consider repealing the 1920s law that allows members of the public to put questions on the ballot for up-or-down votes to make new laws. 

"Well, repeal is a long and involved process," Mariano said.  "But certainly checks and balances on who's spending the money, how they're spending the money, and how they're spending and training the questions are important issues that need to be addressed."

Mariano has long taken issue with ballot measures, and asked on Wednesday whether he liked referendum questions in general. The speaker offered a frank "no."

Supporters say the ballot process allows them to bring topics that are important to Bay Staters directly before voters, when the Legislature drags its feet or refuses to take them up. 

There are a record number of initiative petitions heading to the November 2026 ballot. Though there is still time for the Legislature to strike a deal with campaigns to avoid a ballot vote, and more signatures need to be gathered, the 12 petitions in the queue for November indicate a growing discontent with a Legislature known for its sluggish pace, ballot advocates say.

"This whole system is fraught with peril. We're going to look like California with 24, 25 questions on every ballot," Mariano said.

Spilka also weighed in on the question about repealing access to ballot measures. 

"The Senate passed a bill that would say, if you're doing a major ballot initiative or attack, you need to report your revenue that's being donated on a more regular basis, so that people could see that. It would be more transparent. People could see who you're raising money from, how it's being raised, and not have to wait until almost after the election time period. So there are things that we could do that would change or even strengthen the ballot initiative, but be more transparent," she said.

The Senate unanimously approved the bill (S 2898) last month to require more public reporting on ballot question fundraising and spending; and Mariano has indicated the House plans to take up the bill soon.

Mariano also took issue with the fact that two constitutional officers are involved in ballot campaigns. Secretary of State William Galvin is backing the initiative to allow Election Day voter registration, and Auditor Diana DiZoglio — who is in a public feud with legislative leaders — is helping organize a campaign to subject the Legislature and governor's office to the public records law, from which they're currently exempt. 

"There's something wrong with the system we have. We have two members of the executive, two executive branch involved in legislative issues that are going to be on the ballot. We have the Secretary of State, who's involved with the same day registration, and we have the auditor who's involved in who knows what," Mariano said.

The two leaders also shared their opinions on specific measures. 

Spilka expressed opposition to two ballot measures to slash the income tax and set a revenue collection cap to trigger rebates to ratepayers, and Mariano warned against a question to create rent control around the state. 

Spilka said she was against two measures that could reduce the income tax from 5% to 4%— which would let workers keep more of their earnings but dramatically alter how much revenue the state has to spend — and set a new revenue collection cap to trigger potential rebates to taxpayers. 

"I do want to mention that the lower the income tax from 5 to 4% is sponsored by millionaires. Millionaires will get $10,000 back from that ballot initiative, folks making minimum wage will get $300 back," she said, referring to the campaign organizer Mass. Opportunity Alliance, a business coalition that advocates against high taxes.

She repeated the estimated $5 billion loss from the income tax initiative, and she claimed the rebate initiative would be close to another $2 billion, although it was unclear how she reached that conclusion. 

"We would have to cut every single aspect of our life here in Massachusetts... coupled with the Trump cuts on education, on transportation, on health, to our disabled, all of our vulnerable populations. They would cause a lot of pain," she said. 

A Bay State Poll conducted by The University of New Hampshire Survey Center released Tuesday found that 58% of respondents either somewhat or strongly support the tax cut, about 21% were opposed, and another 21% reported they were neutral or not sure. 

Mariano did not explicitly give his position on the two measures.

Asked about a measure to establish statewide rent control, Mariano strongly warned against the proposal. 

"I just don't think the rent control question that's on the ballot is going to improve the ability for housing investors to get into the marketplace, I think the barriers are very high, the amount of money that it's going to cost, it's almost going to keep people from even entering into it," he said. 

He took issue with the way the question is written to apply one of the strictest rent increase caps in the country statewide.

"I think that the question that's on the ballot really defeats the whole purpose of adding more housing to start, so we need to come up with ways, as the Senate president said, some new and inventive ways, because these old ways are not working," he said.

Spilka deferred on taking a position until after the public hearing on the rent control question.

Rent control proponents see it as a needed fix for a rental market that's out of control and exacerbating the state's housing crisis. 

The University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll found 56% of respondents either somewhat or strongly support the proposal to cap annual rent increases in most rental units to no more than 5% across the state. The poll found 17% of residents were neutral on the topic or not sure and 26% strongly or somewhat opposed the measure. 

Without naming any specific special interest groups, the Senate president also warned against the initiative to apply the state's public records law to the Legislature and governor's office. 

"Part of the problem with doing law by ballot initiatives is they're all sponsored by special interest groups. So the ballot initiative is written and it's tailored to help that special interest group, sometimes not looking at other aspects of what's going on," Spilka said. 

She warned that in the way the measure is written, she worried about constituents' personal information getting leaked. 

"It's my understanding that the way this ballot initiative may be written is that confidential information about our constituents collected through our offices may not, in every circumstance, be able to be excluded. Now, I don't think people want that to happen... So much of our work in each office, representatives and senators, deals with constituent services. People call up and talk about incredibly personal information, it could be immigration, it could be domestic abuse," she said. 

Transparency advocates from both the right and the left, along with DiZoglio, are supporting the measure. Massachusetts and Michigan are the only two states where both the governor’s office and the Legislature claim not to be subjected to their public records laws, according to The Boston Globe.  

Mariano said the issue with the questions is that "they're developed by one side, the advocates."

"You're getting questions, you're getting laws that only one selection of people have vetted. And I think inherently, that's causing a lot of problems, and I think that's at the root of whatever we try to do through ballot initiatives," he said. 

Supporters of some of the ballot questions and critics of the Legislature have argued over the years that too often laws are created or bills are shelved because of the influence of special interest groups on Beacon Hill.