Granting Massachusetts workers paid time off to deal with family and medical issues is once again percolating up on Beacon Hill, and the interests behind the measure may be growing frustrated with the Legislature and looking to voters to turn the bill into law.
When Lawmakers year after year refuse to vote on a popular but controversial issue, it's an established tactic of special interests on Beacon Hill to threaten Legislative leaders with a ballot measure to bring the question straight to voters.
That could be happening with a bill to establish paid family and medical leave in Massachusetts.
The measure would create an insurance fund, paid for by employers and employees, that workers could utilize while recovering from surgery or illness, or to take time off to care for a loved one.
Like many bills, the Senate easily passed their version last session before the measure dropped dead when it got to the House.
Senate President Stan Rosenberg now thinks that if the full Legislature doesn't pass a bill sooner or later, advocates for paid leave will mount an effort to bring the question before voters on the next ballot, circumventing elected lawmakers.
Rosenberg says it's not a surprise that interest groups use the ballot to influence the Legislature.
"What is a surprise is that it's happening so often now and that it really has been a way of communicating to the Legislature 'hey, we gathered 150,000 or 200,000 signatures to put something on the ballot,'" Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said the ballot drives show a clear interest on the part of the public. "Don't you think it would be better to write it in the Legislature than have an up or down vote on the ballot?" he said.
The coalition behind the paid leave effort isn't taking a possible ballot question off the table.
"We are looking at all of our options to win passage of paid family and medical leave," Steve Crawford, spokesman for Raise Up Massachusetts, wrote in an email statement.
A spokesman for Speaker Robert DeLeo wouldn't answer questions about whether the Speaker will take up the bill this session, saying only that the bill is going through the committee process and will be up for a public hearing June 13 at the State House.
The House bill from Rep. Kenneth Gordon already has support from over half and House and Senate. Standing in the bill's way though, are business interests like Associated Industries of Massachusetts, who say the bill would be a burden on small businesses.
"AIM opposes the paid family leave proposal because it would place enormous financial and operational burdens on employers, particularly small business. We remain concerned that proponents continue to equate social progress with paying people not to work," Chris Geehern, spokesman for AIM, wrote to WGBH.
Geehern wrote that AIM is willing to discuss compromises, but they haven't heard reasonable middle ground from proponents yet.
A ballot question could force Beacon Hill to craft and pass a compromise bill that business interests can sign on to and that Gov. Charlie Baker would support. Without that kind of political pressure, the lethargic Legislature may avoid the paid leave debate for another session.
