Legislators get annual report card for Mass Audubon

By Dan Cooper

Staff Intern

The Massachusetts Audubon Society, dedicated to protecting the nature of the state for people and wildlife, recently released their 2006 annual Legislative Report Card, with the state Legislature receiving an overall grade of a low B.

The grade and report card reflect how last year's legislative session performed on environmental roll call votes and scores each legislator individually as well.

"You have to look at each score like a grade," said Jennifer Ryan, Mass Audubon's Assistant Director for Legislative Affairs. "Every legislative session gets to vote on certain environmental issues by a voice count, and we tally those scores together."

Ryan said some of the issues voted on last year included mercury deduction in the environment, a tightening of the Toxic Use Reduction Act and to override former Governor Mitt Romney's budget vetoes on environmental issues.

"We score legislators to see how they voted on an issue," Ryan said. "This grade doesn't include any outside environmental work they might do.

"The lower a legislator's score is means they don't support the environmental vote on the floor," she added.

Ryan said Mass Audubon releases the report card to better inform the public how their local legislator is voting on environmental issues. "We've been doing this for 22 years, since 1985," she added.

Ryan said Mass Audubon tracks every vote the Legislature makes throughout the year and decides which ones are important to environmental protection to score the legislators. "Sometimes, we know what we'll score based on the importance of the issue before the roll call," she added. "We have a daily presence in the Statehouse, so we have a good idea what will be addressed in the legislative chambers."

Ryan said there tends to be a mixture of party votes amongst the issues. "The only time we'll see a vote along party lines is on budgetary issues," she said. "The Republicans, for example, would vote against something if Romney was against it. On other environmental votes, the Democrats and Republicans are traditionally mixed."

Ryan said that the legislators are aware the Audubon Society has scored environmental votes for years. "We let them know what we consider to be environmental priorities," she said.

Overall in 2006, the House voted on 12 environmental roll calls out of 600 total roll call votes. The Senate voted on nine environmental roll calls out of 464 total votes. The average score for the House was 82 percent while the Senate averaged 83 percent. Both were down 10 percent from the 2005 session, due to failed environmental votes on expedited permitting, Ryan said.

Legislators are scored based on the number of "yeas" and "nays" voiced during their session. A vote supporting the environment is given two points, while not voting or a vote against the environment is worth nothing. Scores are then calculated by dividing the total number of points earned by the maximum number possible, which is usually double the number of roll call votes.

The House of Representatives was scored from a maximum number of 24 points while the Senate was scored based on 18 points, according to Ryan.

A legislator's score does not represent an endorsement by Mass Audubon.

Scores may fluctuate year after year due to a legislator's political dynamics, absences due to illness and personal commitments, among other variables.

Ryan said the Society hand delivers the reports cards to the 200 legislators once they come out.

Local representatives from the House that received high marks included State Representatives Ben Swan, James Welch and Tom Petrolati, who all scored 75 percent; Springfield State Representative Cheryl Coakley-Rivera scored 67 percent, as did Chicopee State Representative Joe Wagner. Former State Representative Gale Canderas, now a senator, scored 75 percent as well.

One of the lower ranked legislators in the House's report card was Westfield's State Representative Don Humason, who scored 42 percent. He isn't worried about it, however.

"That's pretty similar to what I scored last year I believe," Humason said. "I don't think it tells the complete story, though."

Humason said he doesn't have a problem with the report card but feels it's not a completely accurate depiction of how legislators feel about the environment.

"I was on the Environmental and Natural Resources Committee last legislative session," Humason said. "Any issues the Legislature votes on concerning the environment have to go through that committee first." Humason said the committee is comprised of seven Senate members and eleven House members.

"The thing I worry about is that the Legislature is much more complicated than a simple vote on an issue," Humason said. "There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that is usually done that the Audubon report card doesn't address."

Humason said he does his job based on his constituent's and state's needs. "I do believe the environment is an important issue," he continued. "A lot of my best work is done locally, and most of that is environmental based.

"As long as the report card is fair, I don't have a problem with it,' Humason said. "I just think it needs to be clearer."

Local State Senators who earned high scores include Michael Knapik of Westfield and Steven Buoniconti of West Springfield, who both scored 56 percent. Buoniconti's score, however, was affected by absence due to attending to a family member after surgery. Former East Longmeadow State Senator Brian Lees, now the Hampden County Clerk of Courts, also scored 56 percent.

The Massachusetts Audubon Society cares for more than 32,000 acres of conservation land and advocate for sound environmental policies at local, state and federal levels.

For more information, visit www.massaudubon.org. To view Legislative Report Cards from this and previous years, click on the Advocacy link on the Mass Audubon website.