“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 developing that compromise, it is critical that the bill retain the House’s greater focus on cost reduction and competitiveness, while also incorporating Senate proposals to expand successful housing tax credits.

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 timely resolution of these differences is critical; not only to put in place tax relief after eighteen months of discussion, but also to finalize a balanced fiscal year 2024 budget.

“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.

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, the MTF said based on IRS data.

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 two key goals: promote Massachusetts’ competitiveness and address high costs of living.”

“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 proposals.”

Today, the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (SWM) released its tax relief proposal. The plan, which mirrors the tax bill passed by the Senate in 2022, includes seven major tax relief provisions and carries an estimated Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 cost of $594 million.1 Like Governor Healey’s proposal, the plan also includes a number of smaller tax provisions not addressed in the House bill, including an increase to the state’s Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) cap and adjustments to the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC).

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Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said consideration of Healey’s tax proposal needed to account for more than the surtax alone. Between fiscal 2015 and 2022, Massachusetts tax revenue increased more than 60%, from $24.7 billion to $41.1 billion, which Howgate said well outpaced a “normal” revenue growth rate.

And if that move will generate a big backlash, you wouldn't know it from the reaction of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

"The most important thing is that as we collect more tax revenue than any reasonable person would have expected, we're giving back that tax revenue to taxpayers," MTF president Doug Howgate said.