“We’ve really been about 20 years since the last major tax relief," said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "Your tax code can get out of whack with where your residents are and where you want to be."

The business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation opposed the change. It noted, however, that a recent analysis by the Department of Revenue suggested the impact would be limited because more couples would file separately on both their state and federal tax returns.

The MTF Tax Thought Leadership Group will host Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt.  Justice Wendlandt, appointed to the SJC by Governor Baker in 2020, has written for the court in several recently decided tax cases, including VAS Holdings.  The event will…

“Massachusetts hasn’t really done tax relief in 20 years,” said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which this week released its latest report that insists the “package is paid for, affordable, and overdue.” “You know every 20 years it’s a good idea to take a look at…

A new report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation points to huge post-pandemic jumps in state revenue before urging the Legislature to use the time left in the year to finally get their act together on tax cuts. According to the MTF, the waiting routine is getting kind of old. “Tax relief…

Six months after Governor Healey filed her administration’s original tax relief bill and one month after a Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget that reflects the cost of a tax relief package was signed into law, House and Senate conferees have yet to produce their version of a final tax package. MTF has…

On August 9th, Governor Healey signed the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget; sending back $272 million in gross spending vetoes ($205 million net), amending 8 outside policy sections, and vetoing one policy section. The Governor’s vetoes eliminate the budget’s reliance on $205 million in one-time…

The House and Senate are set to enact a Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget, totaling $56.2 billion. The conference committee report was filed on July 30th, one month after the start of the new fiscal year. This year, separate tax bill negotiations, the new income surtax, and an uncertain FY 2023 revenue…

Three years ago, deliberations on the fiscal year 2021 budget stretched into December while state government grappled with pandemic upheaval. But other than that outlier, overdue budget talks until this year had not stretched past July 23 in more than two decades, according to research from the…

The longer the state goes without a plan in place, the more it impacts the ability to implement new programs or expand existing ones, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and former senior policy advisor to Senate President Karen Spilka. “There’s a whole lot that…