In a presentation to business and government leaders, MTF President Michael Widmer described the global recession's enormous impact on state and local finances and the state's dependence on $5 billion of one-time state and federal funds to balance the fiscal 2009 and 2010 budgets. Because of the…

At the request of the House Speaker and House Ways and Means Chair, MTF President Michael Widmer made a presentation for the full House of Representatives on the state's large and growing deficits.

The attached budget summary shows fiscal 2009 spending after the Governor's first round of "9C' cuts of $708 million and a savings of $100 million by extending from 2023 to 2025 the funding of the state's unfunded pension liabilities.  With these reductions, fiscal 2009 spending increased by 1…

On behalf of a broad group of business organizations and health plans committed to ensuring access to quality and affordable health care in the Commonwealth, we are writing to express our strong opposition to the provisions imposing new assessments and taxes to fund the state's Health Care Reform…

MTF Letter to State Senate The Commonwealth is going on this debt binge at the very moment that the floor may drop out of our finances. We are not risking a credit downgrade, we are virtually inviting it. Bailing out the Turnpike with no accompanying reforms, no transparency, and no comprehensive…

Warning of a fiscal meltdown, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation called on Governor Patrick and legislative leaders to cut several hundred million dollars from the fiscal 2009 budget which the Legislature approved and sent to the Governor last week.

The House-Senate conference committee deliberating the fiscal 2009 state budget is facing a potential billion-dollar shortfall which threatens to deplete almost half of the Commonwealth's reserves, leaving the state in a precarious position should an economic downturn hit.

Massachusetts employers will spend an estimated $175 million a year for additional employee coverage under the state's health care reform law, according to a report released by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The report analyzes the broad scope of employer participation that is critical to…

In its annual review of state finances, the Foundation cautions that while the Commonwealth is in its third year of financial recovery, the state's leaders now face the challenge of choosing from a long list of competing funding priorities that far exceed the state's ongoing fiscal capacity.