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Boston Herald
Boston Herald
11 Apr 2023
Matthew Medsger


NextImg:House tax cut plan tops governor’s offering, would change rebate law

The House unveiled its version of a tax relief package Tuesday, offering $1.1 billion in cuts that will play out over the next three years, including capital gains cut rejected by lawmakers last session and changes to a tax rebate law passed in the 1980s.

“This is something that we’ve put a lot of thought and effort into,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said. “We wanted to have something that we felt impacted all segments of our economy, all segments of our constituency with some fairness and some equity.”

The plan, offered against Gov. Maura Healey’s about $750 million tax cut proposal, includes several tax code changes the Legislature nearly passed last term and some that didn’t make the previous reform package.

Notably, lawmakers had rejected a proposal by-then Gov. Charlie Baker to cut the state’s short-term capital gains tax. This year’s tax cut plan, however, proposes to lower the rate from 12% to 5%.

The proposal would also double the state’s death tax threshold to $2 million and eliminate the so-called cliff effect, whereby an entire estate is taxed the moment it’s eligible for the tax. That’s a full $1 million less than the change to the estate tax offered by Healey.

The Legislature’s plan includes a $614 child tax credit — a similar proposal accounts for about half of the cost of Healey’s plan — though lawmakers in the lower chamber propose implementing the credit over three years instead of right away.

Mariano told reporters at the State House that the plan represents a balancing act, holding the needs of the state’s most economically disadvantaged against intentions to keep the commonwealth competitive.

“We tried to balance and come up with a number that we thought would be responsible, that we can handle, and in a shifting economy — we still don’t know where inflation is going to land — we’re still concerned about revenues, but we’re also concerned about the of the general economy of the U.S.,” he said.

Doug Howgate, the president of the nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, responded to the news that the House would consider tax reform with assurances the plan was both affordable and necessary.

“The Commonwealth lost 110,000 residents to other states over the last three years. Sensible and sustainable changes to the tax code, like those reflected in the proposals put forward by the Governor and now the House, are not only affordable, but critical first steps to helping address the factors that make it hard for families, businesses, and investments to thrive in Massachusetts,” Howgate said in a written statement.

The House will also consider a change to Chapter 62F of the General Laws, a rule passed in 1986 that last year resulted in about $3 billion in tax rebates for residents. The House would have any future rebates untethered from a taxpayer’s income.

“Make no mistake, Speaker Ron Mariano’s latest attempt to attack a popular, voter-approved tax cap and rebate law only shows his disdain for the taxpayers and it’s a trojan horse to eliminate one of the few protections taxpayers have from Beacon Hill taxing and spending,” Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said following the release of the tax plan.

The House is slated to vote on the proposal Thursday when lawmakers are scheduled to meet in formal session, according to Mariano.

That’s a day after the House will unveil its version of the governor’s $55 billion budget proposal.

Governor Maura Healey testifies before the joint Ways and Means committee at the State House on Tuesday, March 7, 2023 in Boston, MA. (Staff Photo By Nancy Lane/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)

Gov. Maura Healey has her plan and now the House has theirs. The lobbying will now begin. (Herald file photo)