The Controversy of Outside Sections

You may be wondering what “outside sections” are. If you are already familiar with the term, then you probably know how frustrating they are to research. Outside sections are the sections added at the end of an appropriations bill (aka the state budget) that can be, but don’t necessarily have to be, related to budgetary matters; instead, an outside section may create a new law or amend an existing one. The main problem with researching outside sections is the fact that they’re tacked onto the state budget, which is the largest piece of legislation passed every year, and finding information about your outside section can feel a lot like searching for that needle in a haystack. Instatrac’s bill tracking database, MassTrac, to which the library has a subscription, often provides documents helpful with researching outside sections. You may ultimately find, though, that sifting through the various budget drafts and amendments, long bill histories, and House and Senate journal entries is the most thorough approach.

Passing legislation through outside sections is also controversial as many believe the practice goes beyond its original purpose and is now used to deliberately circumvent the open legislative process:

Originally designed as a controlling measure to a line item, the practice of adding outside sections has gone far beyond its original purpose. Now, outside sections may have no connection with any line item language. Legislation that has originated as an "outside section" of an appropriation bill from the Ways and Means Committee of either the House or Senate usually does not have a public hearing and is enacted as part of the appropriations bill. (Source: 1.8.1 Outside Sections)

The year 1975 was the first time an outside section was used in the budget to amend the General Laws, and it was a provision to eliminate unemployment payments to those who have retired or have left their jobs voluntarily. In a 1993 publication by Hogarty and Manley (cited below), they describe this as the “first abuse that opened the floodgates.” While the practice has become more and more common, the use of outside sections for this purpose by the legislature can fluctuate. Mark Bobrowski, in his 2009 Massachusetts Law Review article “The Massachusetts ‘Smart Growth’ Experiment: Chapter 40R”, points out a “sharp decrease” of outside sections between 2004 and 2009. The most current passed budget for FY2021 contained 113 outside sections!

The Supreme Judicial Court has declined to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of this practice, but one court case did elicit the SJC’s opinion that outside sections are not related to the budget and therefore should not become immediately effective upon passage. Instead, the rules regarding the effective dates of outside sections must be the same as those imposed on general statutes, which is typically 90 days after enactment. See: Sutton Corporation v. Metropolitan District Commission, 423 Mass. 200, 667 N.E. 2d 838 (1996).

If you are researching an outside section, keep in mind the controversy surrounding this type of legislation. Also, check out the State Library’s webpage on legislative research, which includes helpful information and links to important primary and secondary resources.

Further reading:

• Hogarty, Richard A. and Richard A. Manley, Circumventing Democracy: Lawmaking by Outside Budget Section. Boston: University of Massachusetts, 1993.
• Budget Process Timeline
• Massachusetts Legislative History

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

When Does a Bill Go into Effect in MA?

According to the Legislative Research and Drafting Manual, in Massachusetts a bill has the “force of law” when “(1) the Governor signs it, (2) when the Governor lets a bill become law by taking no action on the bill for 10 days after it is ‘laid before the Governor,’ (3) when both houses of the Legislature, each by a two-thirds roll call vote, pass the bill over the Governor’s veto, or (4) if an initiative petition is successful.”

When a bill becomes a law, it doesn’t usually go into effect right away.  It’s important to first look at the language of the bill, which will help determine what kind of law it is and when it will take effect in Massachusetts.  Here are some rules to keep in mind:

90 Days:
General legislation of a permanent nature, without an emergency preamble, becomes effective 90 days after being signed by the governor, which includes weekends and holidays.  The delay gives voters time to start the referendum petition process if voters want to repeal the law.

30 Days:
Acts that are not subject to a referendum typically take effect after 30 days, unless otherwise stated in the text of the law.  Special acts often fall under this category.

Laws that are not subject to a referendum include laws about: religious matters; the appointment, tenure, and removal of judges; the powers of the courts; if the law is restricted to a specific city or town; or appropriation acts.

Immediately:
Some acts are declared “emergency laws” and have emergency preambles that state that the passage of the law is “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public convenience [or health, or safety];” both the House and Senate must first approve emergency preambles.  Emergency laws go into effect immediately, even if they are subject to a referendum process.

Similarly, the governor can also file an emergency letter with the secretary of the commonwealth’s office to have a law become effective immediately, even if it is subject to a referendum.

Resolves take effect immediately unless the text of the resolve states otherwise.

Other:
Some acts have specific provisions regarding effective dates, which can usually be found in the last section of the act.  It’s also important to note that an act can also be made up of sections that have different effective dates.

Sources:
Legislative Research and Drafting Manual (downloads as pdf)

Handbook of Legal Research in Massachusetts by Mary Ann Neary et al.


Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Legislative Research: Archival Collections

Gov. Foster Furcolo in 1960.
Photograph from the Foster Furcolo
Papers (Ms. Coll. 86) 

Depending on where and how far your legislative research takes you, the research process may involve searching for materials that supplement the official published documents housed in the State Library.  This often requires visiting other institutions and looking at archival collections relevant to the information you are seeking, and it’s important to be aware of what’s available out there.  Here are some examples that should be kept in mind the next time you research legislation:

• Committee files:  When a bill is assigned to a legislative committee and goes through a public hearing, committee staff will often compile a bill folder that includes submitted testimony.  The folder is retained throughout the legislative session by the committee; however its ultimate disposition varies.  Many of these records are deposited at the State Archives for permanent retention.  If you are unable to find the hearing records or other committee files you are looking for, it’s important to contact the relevant committee to determine where they are housed.
• Example:  an ArchiveGrid search for [“Joint Committee on the Judiciary” Massachusetts] yields many results including hearing, legislative, and subject files for the committee.
• The State Library also maintains a small selection of committee records; finding aids can be viewed in our DSpace digital repository.
• Many hearings and formal legislative sessions are also videotaped; in addition are videos of selected hearings in the library’s collection.
• Governor’s legislative files:  These files include those produced by the Governor’s Legislative and Legal Counsel staff members and can provide background information on legislation from the perspective of the Executive Branch.  Recent records can be accessed by contacting the Governor’s Legislative Office; earlier records (starting in 1964) are housed at the State Archives.  In addition, the executive records of Massachusetts governors (1802-present) are also at the Archives.  For more information visit: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arccol/colidx.htm

• Legislative (or “Bill”) packages:  These are the original manuscript records compiled for each bill (aka proposed legislation).  Passed legislation is filed by its act chapter number, while unpassed legislation is filed by final bill numbers.  More recent (past 10 years or so) packages are housed at the Secretary’s Regulations and Publications Division; earlier packages can be found at the State Archives.
• Papers of elected officials:  The State Library collects records of Massachusetts legislators. The collections, which span from the early 20th through 21st centuries, include those of Calvin Coolidge, Andrew Natsios, Lois Pines, Foster Furcolo, and Barbara Gray.  These collections contain little personal material and primarily include records relating to legislation, issues of concern to the legislator, and constituents.  Finding aids to these collections can be accessed in the library’s DSpace digital repository.  Records (or manuscript) collections such as these may be deposited at other institutions as well; ArchiveGrid is a useful tool to use to help track them down.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

The Short-Lived Biennial Legislative Session System in Massachusetts

If you’re familiar with Massachusetts legislative research materials such as the Acts and Resolves, the Legislative Documents series, and the House and Senate Journals, you will notice one strange similarity among them: volumes are missing for the years 1940 and 1942.  Here’s why: During the 1918 session of the 1917 Constitutional Convention there was discussion among members of the MA General Court to change the election system from annual to biennial.  Some of the main supporting arguments were that biennial elections would save money all around and allow elected officials more time to fulfill the duties of their offices.  Others considered annual elections as “safeguards of the Republic.”  The legislature voted in favor of this amendment, and it was subsequently ratified by the people of the Commonwealth.  Holding biennial legislative sessions was considered a “logical corollary” to biennial elections, and many felt that a shift would filter out unnecessary legislation in an “over-legislated” state.  In 1938 an initiative petition for such sessions was approved by the legislature and ratified by the people as Amendment LXXII in the MA Constitution.

1939 was the first year the General Court began meeting every other year instead of annually (they met in 1939, 1941, and 1943).  In 1942 (for six days) and 1944 (for 15 days) they held two special sessions that resulted in a handful of acts and resolves on particular subjects that required urgent attention.  However, no session was held in 1940 and no legislation or other materials relating thereof was published during that year.  The biennial session system was short-lived and in 1945, after a referendum vote, the General Court abandoned biennial sessions and once again began convening annually.

Much of this information, as well an overall history of the Massachusetts General Court, can be found in the title Leading the Way: a History of the Massachusetts General Court, 1629-1980 by Cornelius Dalton, et al., which is available in the State Library.


Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Moving Forward with Legislative History

As a reference librarian, I have come to expect certain things from patrons hoping to do legislative history. For those who have never had to complete the process before, there is often a look of panic that comes over them as you point to all the walls of books they will need to go through and describe the process of ‘reading between the lines’ to find intent. As someone who also had to learn how to backtrack a law using material like the General Laws, the Acts and Resolves and Senate and House Journals, I understand the dread a patron feels as they disappear behind a tower of oversized books. Legislative history in Massachusetts can be complicated and the library staff has put together a number of helpful resources to guide patrons through the process. Nevertheless, the older a law is the more difficult it can be to find the information you need.

The good news is that it is getting easier. For more recent bills, a number of online resources are gathering the information in one place so that legislative history can be done in less time and with less ambiguity. The legislature’s website is a great place to start. They have the General Laws available as well as Acts starting in 1997 and Resolves starting in 1998. If you have the act number, you will even be able to find the number of the bill that was passed. While perhaps to today’s standards this step may seem basic and obvious, finding this bill number for older laws can take time and some careful maneuvering through various sources. With the Legislature’s website it can be found in an instant.

With this bill number and the year, you have the tools to then use the resource Instatrac. Instatrac, or MassTrac, is a bill-tracking service the State Library subscribes to so it can only be used by patrons on location at the State House. Even without the bill number, you can search by keywords, categories and other citations to find the information you may need. The database contains legislative information including bill text, history, committee information, reports, news articles, votes, press releases and even floor debate for more recent bills. Since it is constantly being updated, it is also a wonderful way to track bills that are still being debated in the current session. For laws enacted after 1995, Instatrac allows a patron doing legislative history to follow a bill from its original text to the day it’s signed into law.

We at the library know how difficult the legislative history process can be, especially for those who are working on older laws or who cannot visit the library. We have already put all Acts and Resolves online and are working to put up all of Legislative Documents (bills). Nevertheless, sometimes the information desired will not be available. With online resources like the legislature’s website, Instatrac, and news services archiving their articles like the Boston Globe and the State House News Service, this process will continue to get easier and how and why a bill became law may get clearer.

Stephanie Turnbull
Reference Librarian

Researching Early Corporations in Massachusetts

A page from the Report of the
Tax Commissioner (PD 35) of 1877-1878

The State Library often receives questions about early Massachusetts corporations, specifically information on their date of organization or how to view their charter.  Gathering information on 19th and early 20th century corporations requires a little research, and it’s a good idea to first understand the early history of corporation laws in Massachusetts.  Before 1851, corporations were required to go through the legislature in order to organize, and the organization was subsequently recorded as a special act.  After 1851, there were different layers of reform to the Massachusetts General Laws, and the status of the corporation (manufacturing, printing, distilling, etc.) determined organization eligibility and the legal procedure. Today, corporations are still subject to the Massachusetts General Laws, and filings are processed through the Corporations Division of the Secretary of State’s Office.  For information on relatively recent corporations (mid-20th century to current) it’s best to contact the Division; the MA Trial Court Law Libraries website has also compiled current state law, selected case law, and other resources on the subject.

One way to locate the special statutes of corporations that organized through the legislature is by performing a keyword or citation search in our Acts and Resolves database.  If you find you’re not having much luck with this approach, it’s important to know that early state taxation documents are particularly helpful.  These documents were published by the Tax Commissioner for, among other reasons, the benefit of tax assessors in the various cities and towns around the Commonwealth.

The following series provide lists of taxable corporations in MA that existed at the time each document was published.  The amount of historical information included in the lists is dependent on the publishing date--later reports provide lists that are much more simplified.  An entry may contain the date a corporation was organized, chartered, or certified, and a statute citation (often when the corporation listed is a new entity); if there is no statute citation, the date provided (especially prior to 1851) will be helpful in tracking the statute down.  Some entries also note when a corporation was reorganized and/or renamed, also with statute citations when applicable.

• Public Document #35:  Report of the Tax Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1877-1919): Call #: 336.2M3 T23r
• Tax Commissioner’s Documents (1866-1882): Call # 336.2M3 T23d
• Corporations Taxable (1911, 1913-1919): Call # 336.2M3 T23c

Each of these titles is available for use in the library, which is located in room 341 of the State House.  For more information, please contact our reference desk at 617-727-2590 or send us an email at reference.department@state.ma.us.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Department

Special Reports Authorized by the General Court

Part of the process of conducting a full legislative history is to see if there are any special reports that relate to the legislation being researched.  Special reports are reports that result from requests or study directives authorized by the Massachusetts General Court.  They can provide detailed research and background information on topics that were, or are, of particular interest to the legislature; they may (but not always) also help a researcher identify the intent behind a bill or statute.

Special reports can be found in two formats: (1) Many are filed with bills and bound in volumes called “legislative documents”.  These reports, like bills, have document numbers assigned by the House or Senate Clerk, and can be easily confused for bills because of this.  Reports, however, tend to be much longer in length than the average bill text.  (2) Other special reports were/are published as their own documents and are not part of the legislative documents series.

A note on the authors of special reports:  Up until the 1950s, the authors of such reports included standing committees, special commissions, and executive agencies.  In 1954, authorship narrowed with the establishment of the Legislative Research Council, whose purpose was to respond to the constant flow of research requests.  In 1994, the Council was defunct but many of their reports (1964 through 1994) can be accessed on the New England School of Law’s website. Since their disbandment, the responsibility of authoring special reports has once again been placed on legislative committees, special commissions, executive agencies, etc.

How do I find a special report relevant to my research?  The following are indexes that have been compiled by various authors, and organized by subject area.  Please make note of any important citation information in the introductions to each index.

Compiled by Francis X. Blouin, Jr.
1802 - 1882 Index and Guide to Massachusetts State Legislative Documents

Compiled by Francis W. Quinn, III
1883 - 1899 Index of Reports to the General Court

Compiled by Leonard Adams
1883 - 1899 Index to Massachusetts Legislative Documents

Compiled by the Massachusetts Legislative Research Bureau
1900 – 1988 Index of Special Reports Authorized By the General Court

Compiled by the State Library of Massachusetts
1988 – Mar. 1994 Index to Special Reports Authorized By the General Court
Jan. 1994 – Dec. 2005 Index to Special Reports:  Authorized By the General Court

Resources for most recent reports:
•  State Library’s online catalog
•  House, Senate, and Joint committees
•  Mass.gov (agencies and special commissions often post reports to their webpages)

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Librarian

An Act By Any Other Name: General vs. Special Acts

Patrons often contact the State Library wanting to know the difference between an act that is general in nature, and what is commonly called a “special act” (or “special law”).  Massachusetts acts are made up of both types, and it’s easy to be confused by this concept since they are published together in no particular order other than that in which they were passed during a specific year; however, prior to 1920, you will find that they were published in separate volumes.  It’s important to be able to recognize the difference between the two, as research methods can vary depending on the type in question.  Also note that the Massachusetts Acts and Resolves are commonly known under the umbrella term “session laws”, and you may see this term used throughout your research.

An act that is general in nature will most often apply to all Massachusetts residents (for example, laws regarding divorce in the state), or it may involve the organization and administration of the state government (for example, the state budget).  Also keep in mind that general acts are passed with the intent of permanence.  This type of act makes up the majority of the acts passed, and together they form the body of the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) and all of its additions, amendments, repeals, etc. that the MGL has undergone since its codification.  In other words, each general act is codified into the MGL.  The MGL, like most existing bodies of law, is mutable and subject to continual changes that are effected by these general acts.

“Special acts” are acts that are more specific in nature.  They apply to a limited number, such as one person, one event, a specific city or town, etc.  Like general acts, they are subject to amendments brought about by subsequent acts; however they are not codified into any body of law.

A good way to distinguish between the two types of acts is to take a look at the language used and the subject matter at hand.  Good questions to ask are: What is the scope of the subject matter?  Is it specific, or does it apply to the Massachusetts community as a whole?  Does it affect the organization or administration of the state government?  Is it meant to be temporary?  Key language usually appears in the first couple sentences of the act.  Does it specifically state that the act is an amendment or insertion being applied to the General Laws?  If so, then it is a general act.  If you’re still not sure, Shephard’s Citations, which is available in the library, is a good resource to look at because it distinguishes between acts codified and not codified.

To make matters more complicated, sometimes an act can have both.  A great example of this is 1993 Chap. 71, a huge act concerning educational reform.  Many of the sections are general acts with references to the MGL, but look at section 70; section 70 is not codified in the MGL and is considered a “special” part of this act.

Examples:
Special Act:  2009 Chap. 201. An Act Designating A Certain Traffic Circle In The City Of Lowell As The Micky Ward Rotary.

General Act:  1980 Chap. 63. An Act Establishing Town Meeting Day.

The State Library has digitized all of the acts from 1692 to 2009; later acts can be found on the legislature’s website.

Kaitlin Connolly
Reference Dept.

Green Communities Act

On July 2, 2008 Governor Deval Patrick signed comprehensive landmark legislation to reduce energy consumption and spur clean energy technology. This law places Massachusetts nationally at the forefront of climate change reform. A leader in energy policy for years, the state participates in a regional effort to reduce greenhouse gases from power plants and has set a goal of increasing solar power in the Commonwealth by 600 percent in 4 years.

Among the major provisions is a requirement for utilities to invest in energy efficiency when it is less expensive than buying power. Previously companies purchased more power when demand increased. The construction of additional polluting power plants over time was the result. In addition, utilities will need to buy more electricity from renewable power sources. By 2030, 25% of this would be from renewables. The law also encourages the creation of green communities. A Green Communities Division within the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources will expend $10 million annually to assist cities and towns in finding ways to become more energy efficient or to invest in renewable energy. No-interest loans are one of the incentives.

The text of this and other legislation can be accessed through the Library's website by clicking on the "Massachusetts Acts and Resolves" button.

Reference Dept.