SENATE PRESIDENT Karen Spilka delivered a speech to a leading business group on Thursday staking out a different stance on competitiveness than Gov. Maura Healey, the House, and the state’s business community.
Where those groups to one degree or another prioritized tax cuts designed to keep wealthy residents from fleeing the state, Spilka said the real problem is 26- to 35-year-olds who are struggling to live here because of the high cost of housing, health care, and higher education.
In her speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at City Winery, Spilka focused on initiatives in the Senate’s budget and tax plan to address those challenges and also said the definition of being competitive needs to be broadened.
“I’d argue that Massachusetts can offer something I like to call ‘courageous competitiveness,’ which means that our commitment to upholding the rights of our residents and celebrating our diversity is our competitive advantage,” she said.
She specifically mentioned the rights of trans children, women seeking abortions, or parents worried about their son or daughter being killed in a mass school shooting. “To them, I say come to Massachusetts,” she said. “We want you and we need you to be exactly who you are here. The Senate, House, and governor are all united in this particular approach to competitiveness, but we need the private sector to be declaring and celebrating our values, too. We may not have the year-round warm weather of a Florida or Texas, but we definitely are not afraid to ‘say gay.’”
Her stance on competitiveness mirrored to some degree the one put forward by Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport when he unveiled the Senate’s budget proposal.
James Rooney, the president and CEO of the Chamber, asked why the Senate’s tax package doesn’t include the elimination of the 12 percent tax on short-term capital gains that was contained in the tax plans of the governor and the House. “Why not?” asked Rooney. “Why not choose to send a signal, similar to the one you’re sending about people, to the business community in the form of some tax relief that is more directly targeted at business?”
Spilka said the Democrats in the Senate spent hours discussing the issue. “In a nutshell, the feeling that came out, the consensus pretty loud and clear, is we need to focus on individuals and working families, at least right now,” Spilka said.
The Senate president also said the decision was made not to inflate the price tag of the tax plan too high, given uncertainties about tax revenues and the recent discovery that the state may owe the federal government $2.5 billion for misspending federal unemployment assistance funds during COVID.
In her speech, Spilka also cast doubt on the claims that rich people and investors are fleeing Massachusetts in droves. She called the reports of out-migration “a bit overblown.”
The $590 million Senate tax plan is about half the size of the House’s plan and includes several elements common to the tax plans of the governor and House, including tax breaks for renters and seniors and a reduction in the estate tax. It also increases the earned income tax credit and tweaks benefits for child and dependent care.
The Senate plan, like the governor’s plan, includes a lot more money for tax breaks related to a market rate housing program centered primarily in Gateway Cities. It does not include elimination of the short-term tax on capital gains.