Prior to the end of formal sessions in calendar year 2021, the Legislature has two major public finance tasks before it: Determine how to use the fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget surplus; and Appropriate Fiscal Recovery Funds (FRF), provided through the American Rescue Plan, to sustain and…

Chakrabarti and Stacy were brought together by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation for a discussion about an equitable economic recovery as part of the think tank’s forum series focused on ARPA. MTF in May published a report titled Closing the Racial Divide in the U.S. and Massachusetts: A…

On October 14th, MTF hosted a third virtual forum exploring what ARPA means for Massachusetts. The event focused on how Massachusetts and its communities can support an inclusive and equitable pandemic recovery. A moderated discussion on the topic was preceded by presentations from Dr. Christina…

Immediate Opportunities for Fiscal Recovery Funds and the two-page MTF in Brief highlight existing programs that can use Fiscal Recovery Funds right away to help the state address four key priority areas: •    Pandemic recovery; •    Barriers to prosperity; • …

This MTF Brief summarizes the key elements of the Governor’s proposal Fiscal background: Massachusetts ended FY 2021 with $34.1 billion in tax revenue - $5 billion higher than the revenue benchmark established in January. $1.1 billion of this surplus is due to capital gains collections that…

Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundations President Eileen McAnneny said employers would love to see their full UI debt from the pandemic canceled, but surmised that "might not be realistic given competing needs. "This obviously doesn't address the whole problem but it's more than a good faith effort to…

In late June, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation published a seven-page analysis that projected the state could wind up with a discretionary surplus from fiscal 2021 of between $1.13 billion and $1.48 billion after accounting for an automatic deposit of up to $1.56 billion in reserves from…

The attached bulletin lays out the fiscal principles that should govern how approximately $5 billion in Fiscal Recovery Funds are allocated. The ARPA provides an unprecedented level of temporary support for Massachusetts and MTF will continue to provide policymakers and the larger public with…

Experts who testified suggested there may be room for both approaches. Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, suggested, similar to Baker, that lawmakers use some money now to ramp up existing programs and jumpstart the economy, while considering longer-term…

Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the state needs to spend some relief funds to maintain its economic recovery but it should also squirrel away money for "unforeseen circumstances."