Legislative Effectiveness and Accountability Partnership (LEAP) Files Ballot Question to Target Corrupting System of Loyalty Pay 

BOSTON (August 6, 2025) – A new group, the Legislative Effectiveness and Accountability Partnership (LEAP), has filed ballot question language with the Attorney General’s office today to empower legislators to act independently on behalf of their constituents. The group has filed two potential versions of the question, intending to move forward with one of them in 2026. 

The ballot questions address the Massachusetts legislature’s system of “leadership stipends,” which is an outlier among the 50 states. Out of 200 state senators and representatives, 149 receive ‘leadership stipends.’ Stipends can go upwards of $119,000 on top of a legislator’s base salary (currently $82,044). Since 2013, the legislature has quadrupled the amount of taxpayer money spent on stipends to $5.4 million. 

“Legislators in Massachusetts are financially dependent on leadership, and dependency breeds deference. Legislators wait to be told what to do. Acting openly and independently risks losing significant income,” said LEAP signer Jonathan Hecht, a former Democratic lawmaker from Watertown.

Massachusetts is last in the country in state legislative effectiveness. The legislature is one of the least transparent in the country, often killing bills or advancing omnibus packages with little public notice or oversight. These are products of a system that rewards loyalty and stifles dissent.

“Reforming the stipend system would dismantle perhaps the most impactful tool leadership has for maintaining control over the membership,” said Scotia Hille, executive director of the progressive watchdog group Act on Mass. “When a single ‘vote off’ from leadership can risk a significant portion of your salary, our lawmakers have to weigh their own livelihoods and the stability of their families against the will of their constituents. That’s no way to structure a democracy. This initiative would reestablish a system where legislators work for their constituents, not leadership.” 

“In addition to empowering legislators to represent their constituents without risk of financial retribution, this initiative would tie stipends to performance. Stipends would be paid only to those doing significant committee work and meeting transparency standards like public debate, public mark-up, and public votes. It would reduce pay disparity between legislators, empowering the rank-and-file,” said John Lippitt, Chair of LEAP. 

“We need to remember that these legislators are elected by the people and their salaries are paid by our tax dollars. This would both save taxpayers $500,000 a year by capping the number of stipend positions and the size of individual stipends and empower legislators to work for the people they are elected by.” said Jenn Nassour, MassGOP Finance Chair.

“Legislators face a difficult choice: Please leadership now, or sacrifice their financial and political interests. A better system of legislative pay would remove the loyalty link and let legislators vote their conscience, without having to wonder if their salary will be impacted,” said Jerren Chang, President and CEO of Partners in Democracy.

LEAP has been formed by members of the bipartisan Coalition to Reform Our Legislature (CROL), which conducted extensive research behind the system of stipends. CROL filed this issue as a bill in this year’s legislative session but was blocked by the legislature, prompting CROL’s decision to push this issue to the ballot. Like CROL, LEAP is composed of members from both sides of the aisle.

Media Contact: Miles Grant, info@stipendreform.com