“This
is a step in the right direction of transparency,” said Senate Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). He went on to say “This rule change will
provide the public with the opportunity to see how exactly members are voting
in a timely fashion.”
Unfortunately,
some of the rules offered by Tarr, Assistant Minority Leader Robert Hedlund
(R-Weymouth), Senate Minority Whip Richard Ross (R-Wrentham), and Michael
Knapik (R-Westfield), the Ranking Republican on Senate Ways and Means, did not
generate the needed support from the members of the majority party.
Those
proposed rules included:
•
the television broadcasting of informal and formal sessions online and making a
digital copy of the sessions available to public access television;
• posting
filed bills on the Internet;
• requiring
a unanimous vote of all the members present to allow Senate business to proceed
beyond the hour of midnight;
• mandating
that any measure that proposes an increase in taxation by available in print
and posted on the Senate website at least 7 days prior to consideration;
• directing
the Senate Ways and Means Committee to include in its executive summary of the
state budget any federal revenue source, non-recurring funding, and off-budget
spending that alters an existing appropriation; and
• pairing
of votes only in cases where a senator is absent from the chamber due to
military service or physical incapacity.
