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…

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation think tank, said the escalating credits designed to prime housing development take aim at the lack of affordable housing strangling many Bay Staters. “This has a significant cost over time, but when you think about our goals for…

“House and Senate conferees have the opportunity to negotiate a compromise tax relief bill that adheres to these principles, includes all of the proposals put forward by both branches, and remains within the $600 million set aside for FY 2024,” MTF wrote in its brief published Thursday. “In…

The House and Senate have both unanimously passed major tax relief legislation in the last two months and a Conference Committee has been appointed to resolve differences. While both bills share many major elements, the bills differ in scope, implementation schedules, and individual components. The…

“We think you can have an inclusionary tax relief proposal and still stay within that $600 million envelope for fiscal 2024,” said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, previewing the theme of a report the group is scheduled to issue later this week. The Senate’s more…

Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 is just over two weeks away and House and Senate budget negotiators are in the process of reconciling countless spending, policy, and technical differences between the two bills. This year, the always complex budget negotiation process is further complicated by separate tax…

“The scope of the House bill is more responsive to the cost of competitive challenges,” Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told the Herald. “We’re still going to crunch the numbers, but the hope would be that the final package would include good ideas from both…

Meanwhile, a May report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the “red flags are waving”when it comes to housing, transportation and migration trends. The state lost 110,000 workers between April 2020 and July 2022, MTF said. That outflow was concentrated among tax filers ages 26 to 35,…

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, praised the Senate’s plan for a “commitment to meaningful reform” but said the exclusion of capital gains tax cut, as well as a scaled back estate tax relief and limited child tax credits, “undercut our collective ability to meet…