As our state government wrestles with the serious challenges facing us - declining revenues brought on by a national recession to rising unemployment, sky-rocketing health care costs, a crumbling transportation infrastructure - it’s becoming clear that there is one problem that must be tackled first: the decline in public confidence in our state government.

Over the past year, there have been an alarming number of incidents involving elected officials: sweetheart deals for special interests, unreported lobbying, pension abuse, bribery, shady campaign donations and expenditures, lobbyists thumbing their noses at state regulators. Three consecutive Speakers of the House have had to leave public office in disgrace.  It’s no surprise that the public would look at this growing list and come to the conclusion that elected officials can’t be trusted, which erodes public support for important initiatives to improve the quality of life for citizens of Massachusetts.

Public service is a privilege, and the abuse of that privilege by a select few has left all elected officials looking tainted in the process. It may run contrary to current public opinion, but I firmly believe from experience that most elected officials are honest people trying to do the right thing. We ran for public office out of a desire to help people and make a difference for our communities - and the unethical actions of a few have made it much harder for the rest of us to do the work we came to do.  Yet as we file legislation and make calls for major reforms in the private and public sector, we fail to take action to reform our own institutions.

It’s for this reason that I am advocating for significant ethics and campaign finance reform to be one of our first orders of business this session. I believe our government cannot function effectively until we have given the public reason to be confident that we, their elected officials, are making our decisions based on what is best for the people - and not ourselves.  Study after study shows that because of the public’s increasing lack of faith in government, legislators’ efforts to make major reforms in society to help people are met with an increasingly skeptical eye.

I’m a strong supporter of Governor Patrick’s proposed ethics reforms and lobbying reforms, including proposals to strengthen investigative and enforcement authority, improve the lobbying laws, enhance penalties, and impose ethics education and training requirements - and I’m glad to see that most of these reforms have support within the Massachusetts Legislature.

However, I don’t think these proposed reforms go far enough - which is why I’ve proposed additional legislation regulating campaign contributions from lobbyists and those seeking government contracts.

One of the biggest problems with our current campaign finance system is that campaigns are often funded by the exact same people who are looking for specific government action - a contract, a tax break, or a piece of legislation. Whether or not the donations are made with an explicit quid pro quo, the implication is the same: a campaign donation will improve your chances of getting what you want from your government. This is often referred to as a “pay to play” situation, and it’s part of what led to the impeachment of former-Governor Rod Blagojevich in Illinois, who allegedly tied administrative action to donations to his campaign account.

The legislation I am proposing - the “Anti-Pay-to-Play Bill” - would prohibit lobbyists from soliciting campaign contributions, and prohibit principals of state contractors (with contracts of $50,000 or greater) and their immediate family from giving or soliciting contributions for statewide and legislative candidates for office during the bidding process or throughout the length of their government contract.  These changes would limit the influence of moneyed interests and the impact they have on legislative deliberations — eliminating “pay-to-play” opportunities in the campaign finance system and, hopefully, increasing public confidence in the integrity of our system as a result.

The State Legislature should pass meaningful ethics reform now, so that we can get on with the other pressing business of the people that lies before us. Passing anti-pay-to-play legislation along with the Governor’s proposed ethics reforms would send a strong message to the public right when it’s needed most: you can trust that your state government is acting in the interests of the people - and only the people - as we tackle the serious challenges facing us.

Our state government has started the yearly process of creating the annual budget, and this year is looking like it will be one of the most difficult in recent memory. With our economy in recession, Massachusetts is facing the same problem as states all across the country: revenue is decreasing, costs are going up, and people are in need of more and more help from their state government. The result is a serious structural gap in our state budget.

In plain English, what does that mean?

First off, you should know that state governments (unlike our federal government) are constitutionally required to balance our budget every single year. This means that if we don’t have enough money coming in, we have to either increase revenue (through the form of increased taxes or fees), or cut spending.

Cutting spending, however, is not as easy as some people might think - because every budget dollar has an effect on many people’s lives. The majority of the calls I am getting to my office these days are from constituents, asking that the Legislature spare a program that affects them or a loved one. These are heartbreaking calls - from mothers with autistic children, or families on the verge of homelessness. There are calls from teachers and parents, asking that we protect funding for public education, and from town administrators, looking for local aid funding to prevent layoffs to police or firefighters.

And yet, unless we find a way of raising revenue this year, we are going to have to make cuts to all of these programs - no matter how worthy they are.

A complaint that’s often made about our state government is that it is “bloated,” with lots of waste. There’s no doubt that waste in government exists, and that reforms are necessary. This session, I predict you’ll see money-saving reforms in our transportation and pension systems, as well as a hard look at corporate welfare policies.

But in fact, over the past ten years, state government spending - as a share of our state economy - has actually gone down, according to the independent research organization Mass Budget and Policy Center. We’ve seen large cuts to spending on higher education, infrastructure, and social services, among others.

This is why I believe it’s important we look for new ways of raising revenue, rather than reducing local aid any further or cutting vital state services more than we already have.

For that reason, I support Governor Patrick’s proposal to raise revenue through closing the telecommunications tax loopholes, giving local communities the option to levy a modest meal and hotel tax, and expanding the Bottle Bill to cover non-carbonated beverages - and I’m asking you to do the same.

No elected official likes to talk about increasing taxes.  But as legislators, we are faced with choices every day - and we owe it to you, our constituents, to be honest about the choices facing us.  In this situation, the choice to me is clear: we need to do whatever we have to do to protect funding for our highest priorities, such as education, health care, infrastructure, and public safety.

As the Legislature moves through the budget process, I encourage you to contact my office any time with your thoughts and questions, or to talk to me about the programs that are most important to you and your family.