Legislators are scored for their roll-called votes on bills and amendments where an important progressive advancement (or stopping a bad policy) is at stake. Learn more about the benefits and limitations of a scorecard.
Bill | Name | Summary from Progressive Mass | Wagner's Vote | Vote Tally |
---|---|---|---|---|
Time to review bills | Vote was to require copies of all bills to be made available to all members of the House and the public at least 72 hours before a vote. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 91 Yes: 48 | |
Time to review amendments | Vote was to require at least 30 minutes for representatives to read an amendment before voting on it. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 99 Yes: 40 | |
Committee materials and votes | Vote was to make all submitted testimony and committee votes available to the public, as well as to provide representatives at least 24 hours to read a bill before voting on it in committee. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 97 Yes: 42 | |
Conversion therapy ban | Vote was on prohibiting licensed mental health professionals from “practicing” on minors the damaging and homophobic/transphobic fraud of “conversion therapy,” which has the goal of “changing” a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity of a minor. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 131 No: 8 | |
Motion to recommit: An Act to raise the cap on kids | Vote was a conservative attempt to delay the elimination of a punitive welfare policy that denies benefits to children who were born while a family is receiving state assistance. MA is one of the only states to still do this. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 112 Yes: 27 | |
Family planning | Vote was on making up to $8 million available for family planning clinics in Massachusetts at risk of losing federal funding under a new Trump administration rule that cuts support for providers that offer abortion services. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 125 No: 10 | |
Veto override: An Act to raise the cap on kids | Vote was on overriding the Governor’s veto on a bill to eliminate a punitive welfare policy that denies benefits to children who were born while a family is receiving state assistance. MA is one of the only states to still do this. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 138 No: 1 | |
Eliminating personal information and replacing with work contact only | Vote was on an amendment to make it more difficult for public sector workers to communicate while trying to form or operating a union. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 111 Yes: 27 | |
Eliminating union right to use public e-mail system | Vote was on an amendment to make it more difficult for public sector unions to communicate with members about formal union buiness. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 119 Yes: 19 | |
Allow Employee recording of all meetings | Vote was on allowing workers to film union organizing meetings without the consent of other workers. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 113 Yes: 25 | |
Employer required to meet with employee and offer the employee the opportunity to opt out | Vote was on enabling bosses to threaten workers against joining a union. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 115 Yes: 23 | |
Ensuring that Funds Appropriated are in Addition to and Not In Lieu of Funds Already Appropriated for Such Purposes | Vote was on redundantly requiring the money from the Fair Share amendment to be spent on education and transportation, a conservative attempt to push anti-tax and anti-spending framing. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 109 Yes: 30 | |
Exempting S corporations | Vote was on creating a corporate tax carveout in the Fair Share amendment. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 107 Yes: 32 | |
Not more than 4% | Vote was on attempting to enable future Legislatures to set the surtax in the Fair Share amendment below 4% -- or even negate it entirely. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 108 Yes: 30 | |
Flexible Fair Share Amendment to allow future changes in rate without constitutional amendment | Vote was on attempting to enable future Legislatures to set the surtax in the Fair Share amendment below 4% -- or even negate it entirely. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 107 Yes: 32 | |
Reducing the regressivity of the Fair Share Amendment by reducing rates of lower income taxpayers | Vote was on lessening or negating the surtax—and requiring that every surtax on millionaires be matched with a tax cut. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 108 Yes: 30 | |
Education and Transportation Trust Fund | Vote was on redundantly requiring the money from the Fair Share amendment to be spent on education and transportation, a conservative attempt to push anti-tax and anti-spending framing. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 107 Yes: 29 | |
Advancing the Fair Share Amendment | Vote was on advancing the Fair Share amendment, a 4% surtax on income above $1 million to fund education and transportation reinvestment, to the 2022 ballot. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 102 No: 37 | |
Governor's Amendment | Vote was on an amendment from Governor Charlie Baker to make it more difficult for public sector workers to organize a union. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 114 Yes: 25 | |
Commission Composition | Vote was on adding two commissioners to the body overseeing the director of the Office of Campaign and Political Finance to ensure that the commission does not consist solely of elected officials and that it contains people with independent legal, campaign, and elections experience. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 115 Yes: 25 | |
Fentanyl interdiction | Vote was on increasing the spending on the drug war. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 105 Yes: 31 | |
Age Requirement | Vote was on creating new penalties for drug possession, doubling down on the failed drug war. Progressive Position: No | No | No: 111 Yes: 28 | |
Student Opportunity Act | Vote was on updating the outdated education funding formula and investing $1.5 billion in additional money in our public schools, especially for the neediest students. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 138 No: 0 | |
An Act Relative to Host Community Agreements | Vote was to give the state Cannabis Control Commission the power to review, regulate and enforce contracts between marijuana businesses and their host communities, clarifying the regulatory process in order to curb corruption and create a more level playing field for small businesses and equity applicants. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 111 No: 29 | |
Ending Transportation Investments | Vote was to nullify the House transportation revenue package if the Fair Share Amendment ("millionaire's tax") passes on the ballot in 2022. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 108 Yes: 31 | |
Delaying Transportation Investments | Vote was to delay implementation of the tiered corporate minimum tax, gas tax increase, and diesel tax increase until after the Commonwealth conducts a study of their impact Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 109 Yes: 30 | |
Eliminating the tiered corporate minimum tax | Vote was to strike the language in the bill creating a tiered corporate minimum tax. The current minimum corporate income tax is a mere $456. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 108 Yes: 31 | |
Closing New Tax Loop Holes | Vote was to eliminate at tax break for commercial trucks and trailers. Progressive Position: YES | No | No: 128 Yes: 11 | |
Reducing Gas Tax Revenue | Vote was to exempt municipalities from the increase in the gas tax, draining revenue away from important transportation and infrastructure investments. Progressive Position: NO | No | No: 108 Yes: 31 | |
An Act Relative to Transportation Finance | Vote was to invest $500-$600 million in transportation and infrastructure through a 5-cent gasoline tax increase, a 9-cent increase to diesel fuel taxes, an increase to minimum corporate tax rates, and higher fees on app-based ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Progressive Position: YES | Yes | Yes: 105 No: 34 | |
Guaranteeing Safe, Accessible, and Fair Elections For All | Vote was to strenghten the protections for in-person voting in 2020, including a clear deadline for guidance from the Secretary of State and a requirement that municpalities create their own preparedness plans. Progressive Position: YES | No | No: 128 Yes: 14 | |
Expanded and Election Day Voter Registration | Vote was to enable voters to register or update their registration on Election Day and streamline the online registration process as so many opportunities to register in person will be lost in 2020 due to the pandemic. Progressive Position: YES | No | No: 127 Yes: 14 | |
Unprofessional police conduct definition | Vote was on narrowing the definition of "unprofessional police conduct" for which decertification could result Progressive Position: No | No | No: 107 Yes: 37 | |
Safety for Children and Elders | Vote was on requiring police to certify that there are no known children or elders in a location before they can secure a no-knock warrant Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 75 No: 69 | |
Tear gas ban | Vote was on banning the use of tear gas, which is banned by the Geneva Convention Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 108 Yes: 36 | |
Preponderance of the Evidence | Vote was on changing the threshold for decertifying a police officer from the very high "clear and convincing evidence" to a more reasonable "prepondernace of the evidence" Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 103 Yes: 41 | |
Identified Complaints | Vote was on offered requiring police departments to pass along complaints to the POST Commission ONLY when complaints are "sustained" and "received from an identifiable complainant and signed under the pains and penalties of perjury," thus making it more difficult to prevent abusive behavior until it is too late and subjecting complainants to retaliation Progressive Position: No | No | No: 112 Yes: 32 | |
Amendment Clarifying Reach Back | Vote was on eliminating officers' offenses prior to the creation of the certification commission as possible grounds for decertification, thereby denying justice and helping abusive officers stay on the force Progressive Position: No | No | No: 104 Yes: 40 | |
Shall to May | Vote was on making it optional for the standards & training commission to decertify a cop when the commission finds strong evidence said cop has committed a serious offense Progressive Position: No | No | No: 103 Yes: 40 | |
Protecting canine officers and canine handlers from "frivolous" lawsuits | Vote was to eliminate language in the bill including attacks by police dogs under the definition of "officer-involved injury or death" Progressive Position: No | No | No: 106 Yes: 37 | |
Commissioner Requirements | Vote was on increasing the police influence on the standards & training commission by allowing the civilian members of the commission to be former police officers or relatives of police officers Progressive Position: No | No | No: 80 Yes: 63 | |
Creating a commission of law enforcement professionals on the Mass Police Standards and Training Commission | Vote was on making the standards & training commission into a majority-police commission Progressive Position: No | No | No: 97 Yes: 47 | |
Preservation of remedies for victims | Vote was on limiting qualified immunity so that victims of police brutality can have their fair day in court Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 122 Yes: 22 | |
Elimininating reforms to Qualified Immunity | Vote was on striking the extremely limited reforms to qualified immunity in the underlying bill Progressive Position: No | No | No: 83 Yes: 61 | |
Studying Qualified Immunity | Vote was on creating a commission to study the issue of qualified immunity Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 100 No: 44 | |
Restrictions on the Acquisition on Military Grade Controlled Property | Vote was on requiring municipalities to have a hearing and a vote before their police department can acquire military equipment Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 96 Yes: 48 | |
Restrictions on the Acquisition on Military Grade Controlled Property | Vote was on the House's final police reform bill, as amended Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 84 No: 60 | |
Supporting Affordable Housing With A Local Option For A fee To Be Applied To Certain Real Estate Transactions | Vote was on enabling municipalities to impose transfer fees on real estate transactions to fund affordable housing Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 117 Yes: 27 | |
Enabling Local Options For Tenant Protections | Vote was on removing the prohibition on rent control and enabling municipalities to pass other tenant protections, such as just cause eviction ordinances or limitations on condo conversions Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 123 Yes: 21 | |
Facilitating Local Approval of Inclusionary Zoning | Vote was on lowering the threshold for approval of inclusionary zoning ordinances to a simple majority Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 126 Yes: 17 | |
Time to read bills | Vote was on giving represetnatives two hours to read a bill before having to vote on it during committee in the extended session. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 100 Yes: 44 | |
An Act creating a 2050 roadmap to a clean and thriving commonwealth | Vote was on creating carbon emissions targets for 2030 and 2040, establishing a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, creating a clean energy equity workforce, and funding energy efficiency and weatherization upgrades for public housing, among other climate measures Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 128 No: 16 | |
Raising the Tax Rate on Unearned Income | Vote was on an amendment to tax unearned income (income from non-retirement investments and other forms of asset ownership, such as stocks, bonds, and dividend and interest income) at a higher rate than earned income (income from wages and salaries, as well as pensions, annuities, 401k, IRAs, and other similar retirement accounts) in order to invest in the economic recovery. Progressive Position: Yes | No | No: 118 Yes: 25 | |
Improved Access to Healthcare | Vote was to increase equitable access to abortion care by expanding access to abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of a lethal fetal diagnosis; allowing 16 and 17 year olds to make their own decisions about abortion care without having to go before a judge; and streamlining access for those under 16 years old by allowing remote hearings, eliminating the need for young people to travel to a courthouse and stand before a judge. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 100 No: 43 | |
An Act relative to justice, equity and accountability in law enforcement in the Commonwealth | Vote was to accept the conference report of the police accountability legislation Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 91 No: 52 | |
Undermining Access to Reproductive Health Services | Vote was on an amendment from Governor Baker to undermine equitable access to abortion care Progressive Position: No | No | No: 100 Yes: 43 | |
Anti-Choice Misinformation | Vote was on a right-wing amendment to promote disinformation and stigmatize individuals seeking abortion care Progressive Position: No | No | No: 111 Yes: 30 | |
An Act relative to justice, equity and accountability in law enforcement in the Commonwealth | Vote was on the final version of the police reform bill. Although the bill was weakened due to pressure from the Governor, it was remarkable to see a number of Democrats still vote against it due to police pressure. Progressive Position: Yes | No | Yes: 97 No: 47 | |
An Act providing for access to reproductive health services | Vote was to override the Governor's veto and pass measures to expand equitable access to abortion services Progressive Position: Yes | No | Yes: 100 No: 42 | |
An Act creating a next-generation roadmap for Massachusetts climate policy | Vote was on setting a roadmap for net zero by 2050 (with 5-year plans and benchmarks), establishing stronger emissions targets, increasing the Renewable Portfolio Standard, codifying Environmental Justice protections, and taking additional steps to encourage wind, solar, and geothermal energy as well as energy efficiency. Progressive Position: Yes | Yes | Yes: 134 No: 9 |