Massachusetts won’t have a chance to legalize fireworks on the 2016 ballot
The state’s attorney general struck down 10 ballot questions, including one that would have legalized consumer fireworks.
Good news, New Hampshire: Consumer fireworks won’t be sold in Massachusetts after Election Day next year, Attorney General Maura Healey has decided.
Wednesday was the day for Healey to rule on whether proposed ballot questions met legal muster. A proposed question that would have legalized and regulated the sale of consumer fireworks in the state did not, Healey’s office ruled. The law would have put limits on the hours in which fireworks could be used and include state fees for licensed sellers.
The reason it was rejected? A provision of the proposed question would have done away with a law that restricts fireworks in Massachusetts, which says the terms “firecracker,’’ “fireworks,’’ and “explosive materials’’ could be used interchangeably.
But Healey ruled canceling that law would have also done away with restrictions on “the manufacture, storage, sale, or transfer of all explosives.’’ Ballot questions need to deal with topics that are “related or mutually dependant’’ to one another, the ruling said, and eliminating that law would have affected more than just fireworks.
The proponent of the question, former State Rep. Richard Bastien, said his group would “examine [its] options.’’ Bastien has the right to appeal the decision to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, but said he may try to work with legislators to address the issue, or file a different fireworks-related ballot question for the 2018 election.
Several potential questions were certified. Backers of those questions will next need to collect nearly 65,000 signatures in support of their questions by December as the next part of the long process of putting the questions to voters.
Topics that moved forward include the legalization of recreational marijuana, the treatment of farm animals, the state’s charter school cap, predictable scheduling for some hourly workers, public record law, and more.
Healey’s office also ruled on a number of proposed constitutional amendments, which would not get to voters until 2018, including an additional 4 percent tax on individuals’ income exceeding $1 million per year.
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