Boston Chamber says Baker tax cuts need a new look

Massachusetts legislators made a mistake when they took a pass on Gov. Charlie Baker’s tax cut proposals last week, the president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce said, suggesting lawmakers take a second look.

“We supported all of them … it just seems like this is stereotypical party behavior. You’ve got the Republican party proposing tax cuts and the Democratic party saying not so fast we have ways to spend that money — and that’s what came out in the budget,” Jim Rooney, chamber president, told John Keller on WBZ Sunday.

On Wednesday, House legislators from the Ways and Means Committee unveiled a nearly $50 billion spending package for fiscal 2023. Included in that package were a host of spending issues near and dear to the hearts of lawmakers, but conspicuously absent were the $700 million in proposed tax cuts Baker had included in his own $48 billion budget proposal.

“Renters, tax cuts for elderly, very precision tax cuts, these weren’t across the board,” Rooney told Keller.

“We think they should revisit those if you look at the financial status of the commonwealth,” he said.

According to Rooney, the commonwealth is in as good a fiscal standing as it has ever been, considering the availability of American Rescue Plan Act funds and nearly $9 billion in federal transportation funds due to come.

“I think giving consumers in this very precise and targeted way was the right proposal by the governor and we’re disappointed and hope the speaker does consider them going forward,” he said.

Baker had proposed further tax relief for renters, adoption of federal standards for no-tax status for low-income residents, an adjustment of the “low-income circuit breaker” on property tax relief for older residents, and a proposal to lower the estate and short-term capital gains taxes.

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group, had endorsed the tax plan, saying the state’s continued growth depended on it and that the rainy day fund had already reached a historic high of $4.6 billion. The House’s budget would add another $785 million to the fund.

Critics of the house budget have noted that it included no mention of tax breaks but did manage to include nearly $20 million to pay for incarcerated people’s phone calls.

“It’s bonkers,” said MassFiscal’s Paul Diego Craney.