My name is Rick Green and I am the chairman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance also known as MassFiscal or MFA. MassFiscal is a grassroots organization of more 350 Massachusetts business people, including Democrats,
Rick GReen
independents and Republicans.
In early August, we began to educate voters by sending direct mail to more than 20 legislative districts. The reaction of legislators to having their voting records made public has been eye opening to say the least. The uproar caused by our educational campaign has played out through op-eds and letters to the editor as well as on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. For our efforts, MassFiscal, our staff, and I have been labeled liars, racists and even Nazis by some legislators and their sycophants. So brazen are they in their attacks that they have publicly called for the IRS to intimidate us. Their feigned indignation would be frightening if it weren’t so overtly self-serving and indeed comical.
Given the vicious response to our efforts, several news organizations have asked why are we doing this? I’m more than happy to explain.
When I founded MassFiscal, I was aghast at how difficult it was to find out how an individual legislator voted. Our lawmakers have created a system in which identifying roll call votes is almost impossible. To view a committee hearing in which your lawmakers testify in support of or against important bills, you must spend your entire day on Beacon Hill in a cramped room. Hearings are not taped or streamed online. The House of Representatives has an “ethics committee” that almost never meets, despite the fact that one House member was recently expelled and several others have resigned in disgrace. In this day and age, when almost everyone has a smartphone and access to the web, the Legislature still prohibits the public from recording or photographing the people’s business.
Last year, in order to remedy this, MFA launched a first-of-its-kind legislative scorecard that may be found at www.MassFiscalScorecard.org. The purpose is simple: to allow the public an easy platform to track how their lawmakers vote on key issues that pertain to fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency. In order to get the word out about our Scorecard, we print and distribute compilations of our ratings on a regular basis. In January, we put up a large billboard, located in the heart of Worcester where hundreds of thousands of motorists can see it every year.
Kevin Kuros Scorecard , score is now 95
From April to August, in approximately 70 different newspapers across the state, we inserted copies of our Scorecard to help educate the public on how their lawmakers voted on three key votes in both the House and Senate. These newspaper inserts listed all 200 lawmakers and were created so the average person could easily engage and understand the issues and how their lawmaker voted. MFA has spent the better part of a year and half doing what we do best: helping the public better understand what is happening in their state government, and specifically how their local lawmakers vote. Although many of our early educational efforts may not have received the notoriety of our recent mailers, they represent a much larger part of our overall educational mission.
Just this year, national organizations like the Sunlight Foundation have given Massachusetts an “F” for governmental transparency. Only four states received such a low grade. he reason MFA must go to such great lengths to educate the public is due to the Legislature’s complete failure to bring transparency to the budget process and our state government. In 2013, the House actually voted to make committee votes unavailable to the public . With lawmakers exhibiting outright disdain for their constituents, it’s left to outside groups like ours to shed light on what is happening on Beacon Hill.
The reasons I have already outlined would be more than sufficient to justify our efforts, but there is something else. As the founder of MassFiscal and the single largest donor to our efforts, it is also personal. I was fortunate enough to start a business in my hometown of Pepperell and grow it from nothing to the largest employer in town. Located just a few miles from New Hampshire, for years my lawyers and accountants have been telling me one thing: Get out, just move across the border. My answer is, and will always be, no. Massachusetts is my home. I grew up here. I want my children to grow up here. No matter how expensive and difficult it is to bring transparency to our government, my commitment is unwavering.
The reason you ask? Because Massachusetts is worth it.
Rick Green is the chairman of Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. Among the legislative districts MassFiscal has sent direct fliers to is the one which encompasses most of Attleboro.
