LAUZON CALLS ON CYR TO STOP HIDING CRITICAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE MIGRANT CRISIS FROM THE PUBLIC
Senate Candidate Pledges Full Transparency to Protect and Inform Cape & Islanders
BARNSTABLE, MA – Christopher Lauzon, Republican nominee for State Senate in the Cape & Islands District in 2022 and candidate for the same office in 2024, is calling on incumbent State Senator Julian Cyr and the entire Massachusetts Legislature to make changes to state law to ensure greater transparency and accessibility of public records to concerned citizens.
“Massachusetts’ state government is often called the least transparent in the country, and state laws and policies bear that out,” Lauzon said. “Since the self-inflicted migrant crisis has taken grip on our Commonwealth beginning this past summer, the issue of transparency and obfuscation by the political class has become more apparent to our citizens.
Governor Healey’s administration has refused to release timely, comprehensive, and accessible information on exactly how many migrants are being housed across the state, where they are all being housed, how many services are being provided, the health status of migrants, financial, public safety, and other impacts on our local communities, and what the resolution to this unaffordable, unsustainable, and reckless policy will be, and when it will be resolved. Further, the Democratic-supermajority State Legislature as a body has refused to hold the Executive accountable and has neglected to provide public access to critical information regarding this crisis.
This is but one instance of the lack of transparency on Beacon Hill, which has permeated our government for decades. Chapter 66, Section 18 of Mass. General Law specifically exempts the “general court” from public record regulations. Our recently-elected State Auditor, Diana DiZoglio, is fighting for a much-needed and long overdue audit of the State Legislature, as is within her Constitutional authority and which has been done in years past, despite the refusal of current legislative leaders to comply. As a former State Representative and Senator, the Auditor has a unique perspective on the need for this audit. The backroom political process and lack of open and transparent access to information which directly impacts the People of Massachusetts is unacceptable, and I will fight for change as the next State Senator for the Cape & Islands.”
Lauzon continued, “Entrenched incumbents like progressive Senator Cyr are working for their own interests, rather than the interests of their constituents. His silence has been deafening on constituent concerns regarding the migrant crisis, and he has neither proposed nor co-sponsored increased transparency in state government throughout his four terms in office.
I am not a career politician: I’m a mechanic in a third-generation small business who knows what it takes to make a living and raise a family on today’s Cape Cod. When elected, I will work for the People I represent, not special interests or bureaucrats.
As part of my commitment to the citizens of Cape Cod and the Islands, one of my first pieces of legislation will be to strike out the “general court” exemption contained in Chapter 66, Section 18, and further clarify public records laws and regulations so that all correspondence, transmissions, and communications, physical or digital, which are received by or sent from the State House, shall be open and accessible to the public in accordance with existing privacy laws.
No one is above the law, including our legislature. The time has come for a more open and transparent government in Massachusetts. This should not be a right or left issue; rather, it is a right or wrong issue. Hiding information from the public is wrong. I will fight every day for what is right as State Senator for the Cape & Islands.”
