The legislature’s earmarks process of doling out state monies in the annual state budget to good projects in each municipality is manifestly unfair and shortchanges most, yet it persists because our legislators annually adopt legislative rules that cede all power to the legislative leadership. Our legislative leadership then award/take home millions of dollars via earmarks in the annual state budget for admittedly good projects in their districts, while the bulk of districts are shortchange by getting little $$$ for their admittedly good projects.

Here is a link to a good recent Boston Globe article on the subject that details how the legislative leadership divvied up the spoils this year, and unfortunately the article is bound to make you cynical about the operation of your state government: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/09/metro/massachusetts-house-democratic-leaders-earmarks-5-million/?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter

A few Mass. Democrats put $5m into the budget for dog parks, a castle, and more. And they did it in secret.

House leaders tucked dozens of their own earmarks into sweeping budget amendments assembled in private

By Samantha J. Gross and Matt Stout Globe Staff,Updated May 9, 2024, 5:44 a.m.

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After months of preaching fiscal restraint, five of the Massachusetts House’s highest-ranking Democrats slipped at least $5 million in earmarks into the chamber’s spending plan in late April, fattening their own districts’ haul far beyond that of most others and almost entirely out of public view.