STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER WADING THROUGH hours of debate and considering hundreds of amendments, the Senate late Wednesday night unanimously approved a $3.82 billion package to steer special federal relief […]
Taxes and Budget Issues
Posted inEconomy
Unemployment insurance deficit may have vanished
This story has been updated with a Baker administration response. THE DEFICIT in the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, expected by some to run into billions of dollars eventually, has apparently […]
Posted inTransportation
Strange bedfellows on fed infrastructure bill
THEY SAY politics can make strange bedfellows, and the vote over the weekend on President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was no exception. The bill passed 228-206 with the help […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State tax collections keep up surprising growth
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A THIRD OF THE WAY into fiscal 2022, state tax collections are trending about 20 percent ahead of the pace that led to a roughly $5 […]
Posted inUncategorized
Heavy health care focus in Senate spending plan
LEADERS IN THE Massachusetts Senate on Wednesday laid out a plan for spending $3.66 billion, taken from a combination of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act and some surplus […]
Posted inThe Download
Can ARPA spending spur transformative change?
Four months ago, CommonWealth reported that jockeying was underway for a slice of the $5.9 billion pie of federal money coming to Massachusetts state government from the American Rescue Plan […]
Posted inUncategorized
Can ARPA spending spur transformative change?
FOUR MONTHS AGO, CommonWealth reported that jockeying was underway for a slice of the $5.9 billion pie of federal money coming to Massachusetts state government from the American Rescue Plan Act. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Unpaid $3,056 tax bill may cost Oxford man his $254,000 home
JOHN SMITH in 1977 bought his home in Oxford, a town just west of Worcester. He worked at a Sakrete Concrete manufacturing facility in his hometown, raised a family there, and by all accounts was a responsible homeowner. He […]
Posted inUncategorized
State is rolling in money
STATE TAX REVENUES continued to surge in September, exceeding forecasts by state officials and far surpassing what the state has taken in during the same month in previous years. The […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker backs $1b to reduce business UI costs
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE EMPLOYERS WOULD SEE their long-term obligation to replenish the state’s unemployment insurance fund cut by $1 billion under a proposal Gov. Charlie Baker made on Wednesday, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Senate leaders cite ‘wisdom in waiting’ to spend ARPA money
SENATE PRESIDENT Karen Spilka believes there is “wisdom in waiting” to spend federal COVID-19 recovery money. “We are no longer in the state of emergency, the major state of emergency […]
Posted inOpinion
2-month sales tax holiday makes sense to me
THINKING OUTSIDE the box is always difficult. We are pre-programmed to look at things in certain ways and seldom venture outside of our comfort zones. I confess, I am one […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker releases spending plan for $186m in ARPA funds
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Monday announced that he will spend $186 million in federal COVID relief funding with a focus on health care and workforce training. “Our administration is putting this $186 […]
Posted inOpinion
REAP is good role model for federal action
AS THE SENATE’S $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan advances, one approach to paying for the bill could be stepped up enforcement of federal tax collections. Just this Sunday during a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker signs budget, takes different tack on tax policy
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday signed into law a $47.6 billion state budget for fiscal 2022, which began two weeks ago. While he let most of the budget become law, Baker, who has line-item veto […]
Posted inUncategorized
Budget provision improves tax break for parents, caregivers
WHILE AN EXPANSION of the federal child tax credit is grabbing headlines, a provision giving low-income parents more of a break on their state taxes is sitting on Gov. Charlie […]
Posted inUncategorized
No budget squeeze with extra billions
WITH AN EXTRA $4.2 billion at their disposal from surging tax revenues, House and Senate budget negotiators reached a deal fairly easily Thursday night on a compromise state budget for […]
Posted inUncategorized
Jockeying starts over how to spend $5b in federal aid
CHRIS CARLOZZI, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, wants at least $1 billion. That’s what he thinks government should spend to help replenish the unemployment insurance trust […]
Posted inThe Download
Continuing an annual tradition: The late state budget
It may be an unusual year, but one annual Beacon Hill tradition is continuing: getting the state budget done late. July 1 marks the start of the 2022 fiscal year, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Continuing an annual tradition: The late state budget
IT MAY BE an unusual year, but one annual Beacon Hill tradition is continuing: getting the state budget done late. July 1 marks the start of the 2022 fiscal year, […]
Posted inEnvironment
State urged to take control of Brayton Point pier
A CANDIDATE for the Somerset Select Board on Monday night called on the state to take control of the deep-water pier at Brayton Point and oust a private company that […]
Posted inUncategorized
Supreme Court stays out of Mass.-N.H. tax dispute
THE US SUPREME COURT declined to take up New Hampshire’s challenge of a Massachusetts regulation requiring out-of-state residents working remotely during the pandemic to pay Massachusetts income tax. The Supreme Court announced Monday that […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Lawmakers cool to Baker spending plans
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A PLAN TO SWEEP about $5 billion in federal relief money into a fund controlled by the Legislature is back on Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk Thursday, […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker seems eager to start spending
WITH STATE GOVERNMENT sitting on a huge pile of cash, Gov. Charlie Baker is suddenly eager to spend it. Early last week he proposed putting up $10 million in federal […]
