Why are you in favor of the state sponsoring vendor monopolies by restricting their information to proprietary formats? Have you no regard for the taxpayer's money?
They can use one of the freeware clones, or heaven forbid download a free reader direct from MS.
Why is it better to download a free reader from MS that won't let you edit as opposed to a free word processor or spreadsheet application from any other programmer that will let you open and edit OpenDocument format files? What is the advantage to the taxpayers of MA to stay on MS's Office upgrade treadmill and contend with MS's proprietary file formats?
I didn't say either was better, I gave you multiple solutions to this supposed problem, that already exist and make this supposedly required change moot.