What to know about this year’s ballot questions in Massachusetts

BOSTON – This fall, Massachusetts voters will face the largest crop of statewide ballot questions in years, many of them involving complex issues.

Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, has done a deep dive into the details of the questions, and he joined Keller @ Large to offer a primer.

Massachusetts Ballot Question 1

On Question 1, expanding the state auditor’s authority to audit the legislature, Horowitz said passage “probably will not empower the auditor to oversee the things people care about in the legislature, their votes, their committee assignments. She’s not going to have that authority. The courts probably won’t give it to her, and the legislature will fight back. So I think a yes vote is not a vote for this power. A yes vote is a vote for gridlock.”

Should MCAS be graduation requirement?

A “yes” vote on Question 2, would wipe out the lone statewide graduation requirement in Massachusetts that students pass the MCAS test by 10th grade. Students would still take the MCAS, but each district would set its own standards for graduation. 

“This really is a question for voters about who should have the authority to dictate who can graduate from high school. Should it be districts? Or should the state play a role and say we have to sign off because we have over 300 districts in the state, [and] if they each have their own standards, that’s no standard,” Horowitz said.

“There are good arguments, I think, on both sides. The teachers union, which is backing the question, says this will give more freedom to teachers will be able to tailor their coursework for the students who need it. The business groups who are really on the no side, they’re saying we don’t want to become a state with a fractured education system,” Horowitz  added. “We want to set high standards across the state. If you vote yes on this, you’re undermining that effort. Certainly MCAS has been a part of the ed reform that’s been nationally acclaimed and we do have some of the best schools in the country. Lots of people credit MCAS for at least part of that success. It is also true, though that most states have common standards, but usually not a test, usually a set of curricula or a set of coursework that seems have to compete. So we are kind of an outlier and really relying on a test to set the common standard from state.”

Sector-based bargaining

Question 3 would allow something called sector-based bargaining here, in which rideshare drivers using platforms like Lyft and Uber could negotiate together for better pay and benefits that would then apply across the industry. 

“Drivers cannot form unions in the traditional way, because they’re not considered employees, they’re considered independent contractors,” Horowitz said. 

The ballot question would order the state to “set up a whole set of regulations.” 

“Let’s allow the sector based system where we’ll have drivers negotiate with all the companies at once and set rules for the whole industry,” Horowitz said. “The big issue will be business interests won’t like it. If it passes here again, you’re likely to see significant challenges, not just from rideshare companies, but from maybe the Chamber of Commerce, national business interests, because this would be a first in the nation effort to set up a system like this, and it could expand to other states and other industries.”

Will Massachusetts legalize psychedelic drugs?

A yes vote on Question 4 would legalize and regulate the use of some psychedelic drugs for both licensed mental health professionals and private parties who want to grow their own,

Horowitz says that would create “a new class of people, facilitators, to oversee the usage, which will be separate from the medical system. And it has to be separate from the medical system, because these drugs are illegal federally. They will remain illegal federally. So there will be no insurance coverage. There’s always the chance of a federal crackdown. I do want to be clear the drugs we’re talking about…can have very serious cardiac and neurological effects. It’s not a kind of casual set of drugs.”

Minimum wage for tipped workers

And Question 5 would phase out the current minimum wage that tipped workers, like waiters and bartenders, get, and require employers instead to pay those workers the full minimum wage. 

“If you’re a tipped worker, you’re working in a restaurant, you are already entitled to the full minimum wage,” Horowitz said. “You are getting $15 an hour, it’s just a question of who pays it. Right now, the employers can pay as little as 675, so long as you make the other $8.25 in tips. So the tips are going toward the minimum wage, and if you don’t get enough in tips, the employer has to cover it. Our research suggests that in other places that have these laws that require employers to cover, tipped workers tend to make a little bit more. But then there are additional stresses on restaurants and other businesses, which they intend to have to address with higher prices and service fees.”