Massachusetts’ state government has long been one of the least transparent in the country.
Want to know how your representative voted in committee on a crucial climate change or police reform bill? Good luck with that. There’s no requirement the information be made public.
Curious about who testified before the committee before it took its top-secret vote? You’re going to have trouble with that one too.
And many of the documents that are readily accessible to the public in other states - e-mails, contracts, and memos at the heart of the people’s business - are off-limits here. Massachusetts has the dubious distinction of being the only state in the country where the governor’s office, the legislature, and the judiciary all claim they are exempt from public records law.