The Healey-Driscoll Administration’s Lack of Transparency: A Concern for Massachusetts Residents

March 18, 2024

 

Over the past 14 months, Governor Healey has spent a total of 59 days outside of the Commonwealth, approximately eight and a half weeks. The lack of transparency by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and their heavy reliance on exemptions to the Massachusetts public records law in relation to travel sets an example on Beacon Hill, leading to the Commonwealth’s low rank in government transparency.

 

MassGOP Chairwoman, Amy Carnevale, commented on the Governor’s lack of transparency stating, “Although the governor vowed to enhance transparency within her office, she has, in fact, taken a contrary approach. During her latest trip, her staff refused to disclose her whereabouts altogether. If security concerns are the rationale for concealing her travel destinations prior to leaving the Commonwealth, there seems to be no justification for not being forthcoming with residents afterwards. Why has she deviated from her own policy of retroactively reporting her activities?”

 

“Even more concerning is that residents would not have learned about a recent occurrence where both the Governor and Lieutenant Governor were simultaneously out of state, with Secretary of State Bill Galvin assuming the role of Governor, if Galvin had not disclosed it himself. This situation is unsettling, and residents should be wary of the Governor’s attempts to withhold information pertaining to out of state travel. The lack of transparency by the Healey-Driscoll administration trickles down to the legislature giving good reason for Massachusetts’ particularly low government transparency score,”Carnevale concluded.

 

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