May 18, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Experts Predict Long, Slow Climb Toward Economic Recovery

Larry Edelman and Shirley Leung ,

The Boston Globe

McAnneny now expects the shutdown to raise the state unemployment rate to 22 percent by the end of June. She projects that 323,000 jobs will be recovered by June 2021, but employment is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels before 2024. That will have a devastating effect on the state budget that goes into effect July 1, with revenues projected to fall by $6 billion, more than a third larger than the foundation’s forecast from just a month ago.

May 18, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Foundation: Mass. fiscal situation worsening

Recovery image unclear: W, square root symbol, or Nike swoosh?

Bruce Mohl ,

Commonwealth Magazine

McAnneny said the foundation’s analysis was completed before Gov. Charlie Baker released his plan for the state’s reopening on Monday. She said the foundation’s analysis assumes that economic activity will resume this summer, but it will be slow and uneven, resulting in lower tax revenues. She said the expectation is that major employers will continue remote working, consumers will be slow to venture out to restaurants and retailers, and many of the unemployed will curtail their expenditures.

April 28, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Can the US economy recover from coronavirus if the budgets of its states are a fiscal disaster?

Jim Puzzanghera ,

MSN News

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a budget watchdog group backed by businesses, estimated the state’s revenue for the next fiscal year could drop $3.9 billion, or 15 percent, below past projections. New York said revenues could fall by as much as $15 billion in its fiscal year that started April 1. Illinois is expecting more than $7 billion in lost revenue through July 2021.

April 18, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Quick Recovery? Not Likely in Massachusetts, as a Coronavirus-Induced Recession Stuns Economy

Shirley Leung and Larry Edleman ,

The Boston Globe

This time around, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation forecasts unemployment approaching 18 percent by the end of June, with 570,000 jobs disappearing in recent weeks. Many of those jobs will be recovered by next spring, but total employment won’t return to pre-crisis levels until 2022, the foundation predicts.

April 16, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Shirley Leung: The Economy Likely Won't Reopen Until July

Zoe Mathews ,

WGBH

Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung told Boston Public Radio on Thursday economic forecasts from Moody's Analytics and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation put the state's economic reopening into July. According to a recent report issued by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, "economic re-engagement" may begin in the first week of July, but does not expect a full recovery of jobs until the last quarter of 2023.
 

April 16, 2020
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

‘Nerve-Racking’: Unemployment Continues to Worsen in Massachusetts

Alison King ,

NBC Boston

Andrew Bagley with the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says the organization predicts an ultimate 18% unemployment rate in the Bay State. Bagley says the expected V-shaped recovery now looks more like a W with damage from the virus — like job losses — worse than initially thought. "The criteria to re-open would require an awful lot of testing and contact tracing, neither of which we are very far along on," he said. "So those things are kind of troubling."

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & COMPETITIVENESS

Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund

Launched by Massachusetts Governor Baker and First Lady Lauren Baker in partnership with the One8 Foundation, the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund will serve essential frontline workers and vulnerable populations across the state facing homelessness, food insecurity and loss of critical services as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis.