Here are the wannabe 2016 ballot questions
Featuring pot, in multiple forms.
Marijuana, healthcare pricing, public records, fireworks—and more.
These are among the issues Bay State voters may weigh in on next year. Wednesday was the deadline for those seeking to put questions on next November‘s presidential election ballot to submit their proposed laws to the attorney general’s office.
Here’s a quick round-up of some of the things you may—may—wind up voting on next fall.
Marijuana, Part One: A local group asks, should growing and using recreational marijuana be legalized for adults over 21, without any additional taxes on marijuana sales beyond the sales tax?
Marijuana, Part Two: A national group asks, should recreational marijuana be legalized, complete with a new state board to oversee the industry and an additional tax on marijuana sales?
You can read about the two marijuana groups and their different philosophies here.
Charter schools: Should the state be able to license up to 12 more charter schools per year?
Public records: Should the cost to acquire public records be cheaper, and should those who sue to acquire records have the right to recoup attorney fees if the public official who kept the records secret is found to have acted in bad faith?
Maternity leave: Should companies be required to offer female employees eight weeks of time off—including two weeks paid—after giving birth to, or adopting, a child?
Workplace scheduling: Should fast food and retail workers, whose shifts are changed within the 14 days leading up to the shift, receive extra pay for the inconvenience?
Fireworks: Should consumer fireworks be made legal and regulated in Massachusetts, to be sold by licensed retailers?
Common Core: Should Massachusetts drop the Common Core educational requirements for students?
Healthcare: Should the amount health insurers pay large hospitals be capped, relative to the average prices it charges for services?
Tobacco: Should taxes on tobacco products be reduced?
Animals: Should animal shelters be required to give advance notice to rescue organizations ahead of euthanizing an animal, to see if rescue organizations wants to take possession of the animal?
More animals: Should animal shelters be required to keep detailed records about the animals they take in?
Farm animals: Should it be illegal for farmers to sell eggs or meat produced by animals who are kept in tight confines preventing them from lying down or turning around?
Water animals: Should it be illegal to use fishing gear that has historically entangled whales or sea turtles?
Renewable energy: Should Massachusetts put new goals in place for energy efficiency, including using 100 percent renewable and alternative energy sources for electricity by 2050?
Slots parlor: Should Massachusetts, which has issued its one and only slots parlor license, have the ability to issue another?
Holocaust denial: Should organizations that deny the Holocaust be barred from diffusing information or holding activities on public grounds?
Open meetings: Should legislative conference committees be subject to the state’s open meeting laws?
The prospective questions have a long road ahead of them. The attorney general must declare them constitutional, their sponsors must collect more than 64,000 signatures in their support, and then it would go to the legislature. If the legislature decides not to take the law up by next spring, the ballot question’s sponsor needs to collect another 10,700 or so signatures to get it on the ballot. Some of these questions may fall short of the goal.
Other proposals are in place for constitutional amendments, including one calling for an additional 4 percent tax on individuals’ income exceeding $1 million per year. Constitutional amendments face a longer process to get on the ballot. If the constitutional amendments proposed this summer pass muster, they wouldn’t see the ballot until 2018.
A question that would have barred state funding from paying for construction or operations for the 2024 Olympics was withdrawn because, well, there will be no 2024 Olympics in Boston.
See the full list of proposed ballot questions here.
The 2015 Presidential candidates:
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