GOP members of the Senate are looking to increase transparency among the state’s quasi-public agencies by throwing the light on their payrolls and making their shrouded operations subject to oversight by the auditor’s office.
Those proposals are among scores pending ahead of this week’s Senate budget debate.
As of Sunday night state Senators had filed at least 1,058 proposed amendments to the $61 billion budget unveiled by their co-workers from the Ways and Means committee earlier this month, including dozens by Republicans.
State Sen. Bruce Tarr, the long-serving Senate Minority Leader, told the Herald on Sunday that his caucus is focusing on five key areas as debate on the fiscal 2026 spending plan gets underway in the upper chamber.
Tarr is joined by State Sens. Peter Durant and Kelly Dooner in offering an amendment — #261 — which would promote “public payroll transparency” by requiring the state’s many quasi-governmental agencies to share their salary data.
The amendment, if adopted along with the senate’s budget, would require that each “quasi-public independent entity shall submit compensation information to the comptroller who shall post such information on the searchable website. The state auditor shall publicly post audits conducted of quasi-public independent entities on its website.”
Tarr stressed it’s not the first time he’s tried to close the gap on public payroll information, but that despite the proposal twice clearing the senate it has never made it through conference committee.
“We are pushing through with it once again,” he said. “This is merely an attempt to close the gap and make sure the public has access to all of the state’s payroll information.”
The state’s ability to compete with other jurisdictions and attract or maintain talent has been an ongoing concern for policymakers, and this year Tarr and Durant are also pushing for a new study on how to keep the Bay State in the running with its fellow states.
The study would examine the “costs of taxation, labor, physical space, and health insurance, compared to other states” and offer a report to the House and Senate by June 1 of next year. Tarr said the state has been doing a similar thing in a piecemeal fashion, but that his proposal would expand the conversations to include non-government entities like labor and business.
“It’s a way to create a discussion that hasn’t been happening,” he said.
Another proposal would ratchet down the sales tax in the state, reducing it to 5% in three steps, beginning in August of this year.
The sales tax would drop from 6.25% to 5.8% this August, to 5.4% in August 2026, and 5% in August 2027, if the amendment passes.
After energy bills skyrocketed this winter, Tarr, Durant, and Democratic state Sen. Mark Montigny are proposing the creation of an “Energy Cost Containment and Reduction Commission” and a “Natural Gas Cost Containment and Reduction Committee” aimed at analyzing the costs of electricity and gas in the Bay State.
Tarr said he aims to bring everyone — consumers, energy providers, environmental organizations — together in order to “understand what’s driving those costs.”
Tarr and Durant aren’t done there, they want the Legislature to create an “Energy Cost Dashboard” that will include a “public-facing dashboard to display information relative to the cost and supply of energy” such as a list of gas and electricity providers by region, each company’s current rates, and explanation of charges included in energy bills including regional costs.
If implemented, the dashboard would help prevent ratepayers from being caught off-guard by increased energy costs, just like so many people were this last year, Tarr said.
Tarr said that, as things stand, most of the state’s cities and towns receive the minimum amount of funding required under state law to cover the cost of educating local students. Amendment 601, sponsored by Tarr, Dooner, and state Sen. Ryan Fattman, would up the House-budget proposed per-pupil aid from $150 per student to $200 per student. Another — #606 — would reform a defunct commission assigned to study the impact of falling enrollment on school aid.
“We need to look at the plight of districts only receiving minimum aid,” Tarr said. “The immediate lifeline for those districts is increased aid. Recreating the commission — or reactivating it — is the first step in changing the funding formula.”
Amendment 722, by Tarr, Durant, and Dooner, would allow teachers to deduct up to $500 of annual education expenses from their state tax obligation. Tarr called it a “very straightforward and very modest way” to acknowledge the work of educators who are spending their own money on their students’ education.
An amendment offered by Tarr and Durant — #406 — would seek to change the definition of who is allowed to provide at-home care for a family member as a paid caregiver to include spouses. Tarr said this move makes sense as it is often the spouse carrying the burden of caring for sick loved ones. The change would require federal approval, Tarr said, and the amendment attempts to begin that process.
Senators will begin consideration of the budget and its various amendments on Tuesday.
