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The State Legislature is formally styled the " Great And General Court ;" the highest court is the " Supreme Judicial Court ." The Capital of Massachusetts is Boston . The commonwealth does not maintain an official governor's residence. LEGISLATURE " Massachusetts Great And General Court "
::President of the Senate: Robert Travaglini
::Speaker of the House of Representatives: Salvatore DiMasi Democrats hold a Supermajority in each of the two chambers of the General Court. ''See also'' Massachusetts General Court official web page . EXECUTIVE JUDICIARY Supreme Judicial Court
Appeals Court Trial Court : Superior Court : District Court : Land Court : Land Court : Housing Court : Juvenile Court : Probate And Family Court : Boston Municipal Court LOCAL GOVERNMENT See Also: List of cities in Massachusetts List of towns in Massachusetts List of Massachusetts counties Massachusetts shares with the five other New England states, plus New York and New Jersey , a governmental structure known as the "New England town." The incorporation of land In many other states, a Town is a compact incorporated area. Between the towns are unincorporated areas, usually quite large, that do not belong to any town. Instead, the state is completely apportioned into Counties . County governments have significant importance, particularly to those living outside towns, and often perform major functions such as operating airports. In contrast, all of the land in Massachusetts is divided up among the cities and towns and there are no "unincorporated" areas or population centers. This complicates comparisons with other states, as most residents identify strongly with the town or city in which they reside, and not with the "populated places" as defined and used in the U.S. Census Bureau , which in most data products considers towns to be Minor Civil Division s, equivalent to Townships in other states (usually with much weaker forms of government). However, many Massachusetts residents also identify with neighborhoods, villages, or other districts of their towns. The city/town distinction Massachusetts maintains minimal distinction between "cities" and "towns." The largest town in population is Framingham . The difference between a town and a city is that a town is governed under the Selectmen and Town Meeting or Representative Town Meeting form of government, whereas a city has a council or board of aldermen (and may or may not have a mayor, a city manager, or both). This distinction dates to the 1820s ; prior to that, all municipalities were governed by Town Meeting. The legal differences between cities and towns is that any municipality that has a population under 12,000 cannot be a “city” (and any “town” with less than 6,000 population must have an Open Town Meeting form of government). Also a “city” has a clearly structured annual budget process, set out in statute, and the legislative body is prohibited from increasing any appropriation above the amount recommended by the mayor or other chief executive. And that, these days, is pretty much the extent of the differences between “town” and “city”. Out of fifty cities in the Commonwealth, there are now eleven that are legally cities and have city councils, but retained "Town of…" in their names. These cities are: Agawam , Amesbury , Barnstable , Easthampton , Franklin , Greenfield , Methuen , Southbridge , Watertown , West Springfield , and Weymouth . There is some misconception that these 11 communities must use an arcane reference "the City Known as the Town of X" as their legal name. How a municipality refers to it self is upto the community. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that what a municipality calls itself doesn’t matter: “It is the substance of the thing done, and not the name given to it, which controls.” Limits to municipal government Many Massachusetts towns were established long before the United States won its independence from Great Britain. The Massachusetts Constitution was written almost immediately after the American Revolution (1780). This constitution re-established the relationship between the state government and the towns which was originally specified by the charter which was granted to the Massachusetts Bay Company by King Charles I in 1629. Limits on Local Taxes The Massachusetts Constitution includes significant restrictions on local taxation options. The Frame of Government specifies that the General Court (the Legislature) has the right to "impose and levy ...taxes". This has been interpreted to mean that all taxes must be imposed by the General Court.
A community is permited but not required to tax up to the levy limit. If a community wants to raise more money than they are allowed under this formula, they must propose a Prop 2 1/2 override which must be approved by the voters.
Home Rule Massachusetts has a very limited Home Rule mechanism— to exercise jurisdiction outside of these bounds, a municipality must petition the General Court for special legislation giving it that authority. The growing abolition of counties By the 1990s, most functions of county governments (including operation of courts and road maintenance) had been taken over by the state, and most county governments were seen as inefficient and outmoded. The government of Suffolk County was substantially integrated with the city government of Boston more than one hundred years ago, to the extent that the members of the Boston City Council are ''ex officio'' the Suffolk County Commissioners, and Boston's treasurer and auditor fulfill the same offices for the county. Thus, residents of the other three Suffolk County communities do not have a voice on the county commission, but all the county expenses are paid by the city of Boston. The government of Nantucket County , which is geographically coterminous with the Town of Nantucket, is operated along similar lines— the town selectmen (executive branch) act as the county commissioners. Mismanagement of and Franklin Counties have done. The governments of Bristol , Plymouth , and Norfolk Counties remain substantially unchanged. Barnstable and Dukes Counties have adopted modern county charters, enabling them to act as efficient regional governments. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT As of the 2001 redistricting, Massachusetts has ten seats in the United States House Of Representatives (all Democratic ), giving Massachusetts the largest one-party delegation in Congress (''i.e.,'' twelve Democrats). LAW See Also: :Category:Massachusetts law For legal research, ''see'' Mass. General Laws on-line The rights of the convicted Voting rights of felons and ex-felons: Like in other states, felons currently imprisoned may not vote. But unlike many other states, Massachusetts does not prohibit ex-felons from voting. Death penalty: Massachusetts has no Death Penalty . Open standards Massachusetts became the first state specifically to address , the state's Secretary For Administration And Finance , Massachusetts convened an open format summit on June 9 2005 . Attendees included Secretary Kriss, state CIO Peter Quinn , and representatives of both proprietary and open formats. On August 31 2005 , Massachusetts released a revised draft of its open format policy that explicitly endorsed the OASIS OpenDocument formats beginning in 2007 , the first state to take such action. The implication for software vendors is that their products must support open formats by 2007 or they will be removed from state employee desktops. Microsoft Office , which does not support open formats, currently holds a nearly 100% share of office application software on Massachusetts government computers. SEE ALSO |
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