Massachusetts Question 1, Public Assistance Payments to Low-Income Seniors Initiative (1946)
| Massachusetts Question 1 | |
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| Election date |
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| Topic Administrative organization and Public assistance programs |
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| Status |
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| Type Indirect initiated state statute |
Origin |
Massachusetts Question 1 was on the ballot as an indirect initiated state statute in Massachusetts on November 5, 1946. It was defeated.
A “yes” vote supported replacing the state’s existing old age assistance law with a new law to provide guaranteed minimum pensions to eligible Massachusetts residents age 65 and older who are in financial need, create an Old Age Pension Commission to oversee the program, and establish the Old Age Pension Fund to finance the program. |
A “no” vote opposed replacing the state’s existing old age assistance law with a new law to provide guaranteed minimum pensions to eligible Massachusetts residents age 65 and older who are in financial need, create an Old Age Pension Commission to oversee the program, and establish the Old Age Pension Fund to finance the program. |
Election results
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Massachusetts Question 1 |
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| Result | Votes | Percentage | ||
| Yes | 536,175 | 48.56% | ||
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568,026 | 51.44% | ||
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title for Question 1 was as follows:
| “ | Shall this measure, which by amendments of the General Laws (Ter. Ed.) provides for payment by the Commonwealth of adequate pensions to deserving citizens sixty-five years of age or over in need of relief or support, who shall have resided in the Commonwealth not less than five years immediately preceding the date of application for such pension, and who shall have resided in the Commonwealth continuously for one year immediately preceding said date of application, which is further described as follows:- The measure by amendments of General Laws (Ter. Ed.), c. 6. provides for an old age pension commission of three persons, one to be a qualified physician, another to be an attorney at law and a third to be a non-professional person, who are to be appointed and may be removed for cause by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Council, and are to serve under the Governor and Council. Not more than two members of said Commission shall be members of the same political party. Original appointments of members shall be for one, two and three years respectively, and thereafter appointments are to be for three years. Such members are to devote their whole time to the work of the Commission during business hours and be engaged in no other business, occupation or profession. One of their number is to be designated as chairman by the Governor and shall receive a salary of $6,000, and each other members $5,500 per year, with their necessary expenses. The commission is empowered to make and enforce rules and regulations as it may deem necessary in the performance of its duties and as may be approved by the Governor and Council. The measure strikes out chapter 118A of the General Laws (Ter. Ed.) and inserts in its place a new chapter entitled “Adequate pensions for certain aged citizens.” It is provided that pensions hereunder shall be paid from the date of application therefor, but in no event before the applicant reaches the age of sixty-five The Commission shall render a decision in not less than thirty days from the date of application for a pension or a request for in increase of the amount thereof. Such pension shall, wherever practicable, be paid to the aged person in his own home or in lodgings or in a boarding home, which for the purposes hereof shall include any institution providing shelter, care and treatment for aged persons which is not supported in whole or in part by public funds; provided, that no inmate of such a boarding home or institution shall be eligible for a pension under this chapter while being cared for under a contract. Such pension shall be paid by check or in cash which shall be delivered to the pensioner at his residence, if he so requests, and shall be paid semi-monthly unless Such pension shall be on the pensioner prefers less frequent payments basis of need and the amount thereof shall be determined in accordance with established by the Commission. Budgetary standards shall be such as to enable an individual pensioner to maintain a standard of Such pensions, except as henein- living compatible with decency and health after provided, shall be at the rate of not less than $48.00 monthly. The pensioner's budget at such times as may be required shall include medical care if recommended by a recognized physician, eye-glasses, if recommended by a recognized optician, dental care and false teeth, if recommended by a recognized dentist. In computing the pensioner's payment under this chapter, the Commission shall deduct from the pensioner's budget or the minimum payments, whichever is greater the amount of income the person paid or to be paid a pension hereunder may be receiving from any source, and may deduct therefrom such reasonable amount as may be deemed to represent the financial value of board, lodging or other assistance which is being furnished to such persons from any source. Upon the death of a person drawing a pension, whose funeral cost does not exceed the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars and in whose estate there are insufficient assets to cover the full cost of the funeral, the Commission shall pay to the funeral director the difference between the assets and the cost of the funeral, a sum not exceeding one hundred and twenty-five dollars. Expenses for medical, hospital and other services rendered to a pensioner which remain unpaid at the time of his death or commitment to an institution as an insane person, shall be paid directly to the person rendering such services. No pension under this chapter shall be discontinued nor shall the amount thereof be decreased until the expiration of fifteen days after notice has been given by the Commission to the pensioner. Provision is made by which a person receiving a pension may be absent from the Commonwealth on a visit without having such pension suspended. It is provided that General Laws (Ter. Ed.). c. 273. § 20, which relates to the support of parents by children, shall not apply when parents are eligible to receive a pension. Provision is made that there shall be set up in the Commission a subdivision of appeals under the jurisdiction of a supervisor of appeals. Any person aggrieved by the failure of the Commission to pay an adequate pension under this chapter, or by the failure of the Commission to approve or reject an application for a pension or a request for an increase in the amount thereof, within thirty days after receiving such application or request, shall have a right to a fair hearin after due notice, upon appeal to the subdivision of appeals in the form and manner prescribed by the commission; provided that such appeal is received by the subdivision of appeals within sixty days after official notice of the action taken by the Old Age Pension Commission has been received by the applicant or pensioner. The decision of the subdivision of appeals shall. .be final and binding upon the Commission. The Commission or any interested person aggrieved by any decision in any proceeding before the subdivision of appeals may obtain judicial review of such decision by filing within twenty days of the date of mailing of such decision, a petition for review thereof in the district court within the judicial district wherein the pensioner or the applicant for a pension lives. In any proceeding for review the findings of the subdivision of appeals as to facts shall be conclusive, such proceedings shall be heard in a summary manner. and given precedence over all other civil cases. From the decision of a district court upon, review an appeal may be taken to the Supreme Judicial Court 1 The possession by an applicant for pension under this chapter of assets consisting of cash, active securities or inactive securities, or any combination of such assets, shall not disqualify him from receiving such pension; provided that the total of such assets, figuring the present cash value of such inactive securities at the sum determined by the Old Age Pension Commission, does not exceed the sum of $300. A person is not to be disqualified from receiving a pension because of the ownership of an equity in vacant land from which there is insufficient income to provide for his budgetary needs or minimum payments, or the ownership of an equity in real estate by an applicant who resides thereon or who, in the opinion of the Commission is residing elsewhere because of physical or mental incapacity, provided that if such equity on the basis of assessed valuation exceeds an average of $3,000 during the five years immediately preceding application for the pension, the applicant shall execute a bond in the penal sum for the amoutn of the equity in excess of $3,000 conditioned on repayment to the Commonwealth of all amounts paid as such pension without interest, such bond to be secured by a mortgage on the applicant's real estate. Provision is made for the recording of sucn bond and mortgage without a fee and the appor- tionment of the proceeds realized from any of them between the Federal gov- ernment and the Commonwealth. A person is not to be disqualified from receiving a pension by reason of the ownership of a policy of group insurance or of a policy of insurance in an amount not exceeding $1.000 or of a policy of insurance in an amount not exceeding $3,000, having a cash surrender value not in excess of $1,000, if such policy has been in effect not less than fifteen years. No pension shall be granted to an applicant who at any time within five years immediately prior to the filing of an application for such pension has made an assignment or transfer of property so as to render himself eligible to such pension. No pension shall be subject to trustee process or assignment, and no applicant for a pension. who knowingly makes any false statement or perpetrates any fraud or deception in relation to his application, shall be granted any pen- sion nor be eligible for one during one year thereafter. A person, his executor or administrator shall be liable in contract to the Commonwealth for expenses incurred by it for a pension paid to such person under this chapter if such person or his estate is in possession of funds not otherwise exempted thereunder. If an application for a pension under this chapter is eitected by the eligibility of the applicant to receive aid under General Laws (Ter. Ed.). c. 115, which relates to State and Military Aid and Soldiers' Relief. the applicant shall be entitled to exercise such options and execute such waivers as may be necessary to receive the pension which he seeks. All cities and towns in the Commonwealth shall furnish suitable headquarters for the carrying out of the duties of the commission in such cities and towns. The measure further provides that there shall be established and set up on the books of the Commonwealth a separate fund, to be known as the Old Age Pension fund, consisting of receipts credited to said fund under General Laws (Ter. Ed). c. 64B, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 128A § 15, as amended, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 138. § 27, amended, and all proceeds of taxes assessed under Acts of 1941, c. 729. $$ 9 and 9A. The Old Age Assistance Fund as in force immediately prior to the effective date of this act is hereby continued in existence, but shall hereafter be entitled "The Old Age Pension Fund" It is provided that all civil service employees in the Department of Public Welfare of the Commonwealth. including the supervisor, referees and em- ployees of the subdivision of appeals in said department or of any city or town. employed in the administration of the Old Age Assistance Law on the effective date of this proposed measure, shall be transferred to the service of the Old Age Pension Commission, retaining their present civil service seniority retire- ment rights and any step increases from the minimum pay of their grade earned during their service with said department or said bureaus. It is provided that all records and property used in the administration of the Old Age Assistance Law and which are the property of the Commonweath are to be transferred to the old Age Pension Commission. This act snall take enect on March first, nineteen hundred and forty- seven, - which proposed law, was approved in the House of Representatives by a vote of 125 in the affirmative and 79 in the negative, and on which the Senate did not vote, - be approved? YES NO | ” |
Path to the ballot
Before 1952, citizen-initiated ballot measures in Massachusetts required a fixed number of signatures. In 1950, voters approved a constitutional amendment changing this to a percentage-based system, tying the number of required signatures to ballots cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. Before 1952, the signature requirement for indirect initiated state statutes was 20,000, with an additional 5,000 if the Legislature rejected the proposal and proponents wanted it placed on the ballot.
See also
External links
- William Francis Galvin Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, "Massachusetts Statewide Ballot Measures: 1919-Present"
- Athol Daily News, "LEGAL NOTICE," October 24, 1946
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