Hearing to be held on measures that would lower Massachusetts income tax and cap state revenue; Governor Healey opposes both

BY STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions is holding a public hearing Monday on a measure (H 5007Track) to lower the state income tax from 5% to 4% over three years and another (H 5006Track) that caps the amount of revenue the state can collect each year and refunds excess revenue collected to taxpayers.

Gov. Maura Healey has expressed opposition to both proposals and said dropping the income tax rate to 4% could take $5 billion out of the state budget.

On March 18th, the House passed a $1.8 billion spending bill with language that would decouple Massachusetts’s state tax code from changes to the federal tax code that benefit Bay State businesses if the income tax cut ballot question passes, a condition meant to shield the state from a double-whammy decrease to tax revenues.

Senate President Karen Spilka said the proposal capping revenue growth could cut another $2 billion out of the state budget.

A recent poll by the UNH Survey Center found 58% of respondents somewhat or strongly support the income tax cut. Also, a report from the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University found “a tax cut would give households around the state more money to spend and save,” adding that dropping the income tax from 5% to 4% over three years would “more than offset” revenue gains since a surtax on wealthier households went into effect and “imperil efforts to balance the state budget and sustain core government programs moving forward”.

The hearing will take place in Hearing Room A-2 beginning at 1:00 p.m.