Legislature forms yet another joint committee, this one to tackle voter petitions

With an unusually high number of initiative petitions to consider this year, leaders in the Legislature have announced they will tackle the long list of potential ballot questions through the creation of a new special joint committee.

The offices of House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka issued a joint statement on Monday, in which the lawmakers said that with nearly a dozen proposed changes to the state’s laws before them, they will combine their constitutionally required efforts under a single bicameral eight-member committee.

“The State Constitution tasks the Legislature with considering each initiative petition, and with giving interested parties the ability to provide feedback on the policy changes being sought at the ballot box. Given the number of questions that were submitted this session, including competing versions of the same question, the House and Senate will act to establish a special joint committee tasked with reviewing the initiatives that is especially equipped to tackle the unique challenges presented by the legal and policy intricacies of the questions this year,” Mariano and Spilka wrote.

There are currently 10 questions covering five topics up for consideration, after advocates spent the summer gathering the more-than-75,000 signatures required to make lawmakers take up their concerns.

Questions on either side of issues like the continued use of the MCAS test for high school students, the employment status of app-based workers, the State Auditor’s authority over the Legislature, the legality of psychedelic substances, and tipped wages would require too much time moving between various committees for the Legislature to act on them, according to a spokesperson for the speakers office.

The eight-member committee will include four state senators and as many representatives, with Spilka and Mariano each choosing three from their chambers and two members picked by the House and Senate Minority Leaders.

Petitions that are not acted upon by the Legislature by the end of session could appear on the 2024 ballot to be decided by Bay State voters, provided backers can gather around 12,500 additional signatures this summer.

Herald wire services contributed.