Beacon Hill News

Commission Rejects Cannabis Question Signature Challenge

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By Katie Castellani

The State Ballot Law Commission Tuesday overruled an objection to nomination signatures supporting an initiative petition seeking to repeal the state’s adult-use recreational cannabis laws and ordered the question to be printed on November’s ballot. In a 16-page decision, the commission found that objector Kevin Gilnack, who filed the signatures challenge on behalf of the Stop the Repeal campaign that opposes the ballot question, “did not meet the burden of proof” to disqualify enough signatures to scrap the initiative petition. In a seven-page objection filed last week, Gilnack contended numerous signatures were “obtained through fraudulent means,” were not “genuine,” were “illegible,” excluded required addresses or included stray marks. As a result, Gilnack said, the committee behind the ballot question did not file the required 12,429 certified signatures. That marked the final batch of signatures petitioners had to collect after a panel of lawmakers decided that none of the initiative petitions brought before them this year warranted legislative attention.

Beacon Hill News

How The House’s Sausage-Making Put Transparency Groups in A Tough Spot

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by Chris Lisinski, CommonWealth Beacon
June 24, 2026
A QUESTION HAS been swirling around some corners of the reform-the-Legislature movement this month: Why did a trio of groups supporting greater transparency, some of whom have previously taken Beacon Hill to task for its closed-door ways, support legislation that crusading state Auditor Diana DiZoglio dubbed a “dumpster fire”? The answer has to do with the messy sausage-making details of legislation — details that in this case are perhaps not so much a bug as a feature of the bill designed to smooth its passage. When House leaders announced plans for a controversial measure that would both curtail DiZoglio’s power to audit the Legislature and also subject lawmakers to public records requirements, they included statements of support from the ACLU of Massachusetts, the good-government group Common Cause, and the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. Those written comments focused only on the records portion of the bill, not the audit sections. But the statements caught some observers off guard, given that the legislation tied the two issues together, and muddied the debate over a path forward on issues that have roiled state government for years.

Beacon Hill News

Senate, House, Governor Agree to Liquor Sales Through 3 a.m., This Summer

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All three branches of state government agree it’s okay to party a little longer—at least on a trial basis this summer—as Beacon Hill allow liquor sales until 3 a.m.

Gov. Maura Healey quickly signed legislation Monday passed by the Senate and House that permits longer statewide “last call” hours for businesses this summer. It would also allow cities and towns to decide whether to create public consumption “districts” through the end of July. The bill was supported by Sen. Barry Finegold. Finegold said, “This bill gives our cities the home-field advantage: local control, local choice, local celebration. Our communities and their hospitality establishments can now keep the summertime festivities going a bit longer, ensuring more fun—and, of course, more revenue.”

“This bill will provide more opportunities for people to celebrate with their community for the World Cup and the other exciting events we have happening this summer for MA250,” said Healey.

Beacon Hill News

DiZoglio Blasts New House Bill Limiting Scope of Legislative Audit

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Auditor Says Effort to Block Disputes from Reaching Courts is ‘Craziness’
By Sam Drysdale

After a year and a half of lawsuits and public sparring, House Democrats Tuesday unveiled legislation that would essentially redefine how the 2024 voter mandate to audit the Legislature is carried out. The bill, which was quickly scheduled for a House vote Wednesday, represents one of the most significant developments yet in the long-running fallout from the 2024 ballot question that empowered Auditor Diana DiZoglio to audit the Legislature—a measure approved by 72% of voters despite fierce opposition from legislative leaders. House leaders are pitching the proposal as a transparency package that would establish new public access rights to legislative records while creating, what Speaker Ronald Mariano described as, a clear framework for legislative audits that respects constitutional separation of powers principles. DiZoglio sees it very differently. “The People have a co-equal right with the Legislature to create laws, and the courts have a constitutional right to adjudicate laws.

Beacon Hill News

In Final Report on Sheriff Spending, IG Warns It’s ‘Time for The Chaos To Stop’

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By Michael P. Norton

Inspector General Jeff Shapiro dropped his final report on county sheriffs’ spending Monday morning and it hit Beacon Hill with a thud, and blame to go around. The sheriffs’ budget process is “chaotic with chronic underfunding and illegal overspending,” Shapiro’s office said. Problems stem from a “lack of a common understanding of the role of the sheriffs’ offices,” with some legislators seeing their role as narrow and some of the elected sheriffs possessing a more expansive view. “How we got to this point no longer matters. Sheriffs’ offices have been Commonwealth agencies for more than 25 years.

Beacon Hill News

State Senate Says it will Provide Audit Documents to Dizoglio

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Tarr Raps ‘Disturbing Pattern’ of Seeking Court Opinions on Pending Questions, But Not the Legislative Audit
By Alison Kuznitz, Michael P. Norton

After resisting, the Senate plans to provide financial information that Auditor Diana DiZoglio has long requested as part of a probe of the Legislature authorized under a 2024 law. The Senate voted 33-6 Thursday to pass a resolution laying out the history of its dispute with the auditor and making it clear that senators are limiting the records they will provide to those discussed in recent litigation. Sens. Cindy Friedman and Paul Feeney said the branch is voluntarily handing over the records. “We are taking the affirmative step of providing those documents forthwith,” Friedman told reporters.

Beacon Hill News

Senate Version of Mass. Budget adds Money for Haverhill Inner City Boxing Club

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The Massachusetts state Senate added $26.5 million to its version of the state budget this week, including $25,000 for Haverhill Inner City Boxing Club. The amount was set aside to help the Lafayette Square club provide support for underprivileged youth. The club in 2024 was serving more than 150 members from Haverhill, the lower Merrimack Valley and Southern New Hampshire. The nonprofit organization said at the time it served more than 900 members, ages from 10 to 25, since its founding in 2013. The Senate additions also include $125,000 for Lawrence High School to create a career pathway partnership with Merrimack Health, which operates hospitals in Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill.

Beacon Hill News

Campbell Will Authorize Dizoglio to Secure Counsel in Audit Law Case

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AG Also Says She Won’t Represent the Legislature
By Colin A. Young

State Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell will tell Auditor Diana DiZoglio she can go ahead and secure outside counsel to represent her in a lawsuit against the Legislature, she said Tuesday. The Supreme Judicial Court last week gave Campbell 30 days to decide whether or not she would represent DiZoglio in the auditor’s pursuit of claims against the Legislature for alleged failure to respond to four specific requests outlined in a January 2025 memo. Those requests were part of an audit that DiZoglio attempted to conduct in keeping with a 2024 voter law that was approved by 72% of voters. Campbell, during an appearance on GBH Radio on Tuesday, said she will shortly send DiZoglio her response, “allowing her to proceed to appoint an attorney to then go into court with respect to those four things, and this will move forward.”

The four things specifically mentioned in the January 2025 memo and in last week’s court hearing were the official budgets for each chamber of the Legislature for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024; copies of official audits of each chamber for the same fiscal years; a listing of all transactions related to each chamber’s balance forward line item for those fiscal years; and a list of all monetary settlement agreements entered into by each chamber with any current or former employees or elected members during the same timeframe. Campbell also suggested her office will no longer represent the Legislature, as it has during an attempt to have the courts toss DiZoglio’s lawsuit, moving forward.