Under Article 48 of the amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth (ratified in 1917) the voters of the Commonwealth can propose initiatives (basically new laws) or referenda (basically to approve or disapprove laws already enacted by the legislature) with every general state-wide election. There are usually somewhere between two and a half dozen proposals which get submitted to the legislature.

In order to have a petition approved for submission to the voters, it must (1) be in proper form, (2) not be “substantially the same” as any measure submitted in the last two statewide general elections, (3) contain only subjects that are “related” or “mutually dependent” and (4) not be on a short list of “excluded matters” — such as that it relates to religious practice or only one particular city or town.

Initiative petitions which have been approved through the years include the “millionaire’s” tax in 2022 and Proposition 2½ in 1980. Other proposals include “physician assisted suicide” —  which was narrowly voted down in 2012 — and medical use of marijuana. 

Whenever these initiative petitions come up, I like to do an analysis of the petition as a “service to my readers” to give them a bit of  an inside scoop that they may not yet have.

This year there are five petitions that have been proposed:

Question 1 – Should the State Auditor have the Authority to audit the Legislature?

Question 2 – Should the MCAS continue on as a High School Graduation Requirement?

Question 3 – Should Network Transportation Drivers be able to Unionize?

Question 4 – Should there be Limited Legalization of Certain Natural Psychedelic Substances?

Question 5 – Should the Minimum Wage for Tipped Workers be Raised?

Unlike other years, none of these questions has (in my opinion) a “slam-dunk” answer. These are generally complicated questions with reasonable arguments on either side. We also have not been deluged with ad campaigns this year in Massachusetts. 

Finally, there are lots of sources where one can get information about the ballot questions. Aside from the blog, the sources include:

• The official Secretary of State’s Information for Voters
• A guide from the Boston Globe
• A guide from the Center for State Policy Analysis

I’ll be looking at each question in more detail over the next five days.