Our commitment to meticulous, high quality research and clearly explained, non-partisan analysis has won recognition and respect on Beacon Hill and is reflected in five prestigious national awards earned by the Foundation in recent years. MTF's work has been recognized for our role in gaining passage of MBTA financing reform, detailing the state's capital crisis, reducing the high cost of doing business in Massachusetts, and promoting the responsible management of state surpluses.

MTF analysis comes in a wide variety of forms: annual studies of the Massachusetts economy and forecasts of state revenues, major research reports on specific topics, legislation, special bulletins, public testimony, and both formal and informal correspondence with government officials. Many of these publications can be read and MTF's major reports can be ordered from the Research and Publications page on this site.

No other organization has had such continuing impact on an enormous range of issues that are vital to the long-term interest of Massachusetts taxpayers. As a result of the Foundation's analysis and leadership on ballot questions over the last decade, voters approved an initiative to eliminate the income tax on savings and rejected an ill-advised effort to establish a graduated income tax that would have harmed the state's competitiveness. Our groundbreaking analysis put the spotlight on the high cost of doing business in Massachusetts and led to changes in state law that lowered unemployment insurance and workers' compensation rates and achieved more equitable tax policies for important industries in the state.

Since the early 1990s, the Foundation has served as the only independent resource for state revenue and spending projections, with forecasts of tax revenues that have set the spending boundaries for the annual budget debate. At the same time, MTF's in-depth budgetary analyses have resulted in greater state education aid for communities experiencing rapid enrollment growth, more prudent financing of the state's unfunded pension liability, and a host of other positive spending decisions.

The Foundation has successfully advocated major governmental reforms which have saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, such as the historic legislation that ended the MBTA's ever growing dependency on taxpayer-funded state subsidies. In response to MTF's capital recommendations, state lawmakers have devoted the lion's share of surplus revenues to alleviate the enormous burden on the state's capital budget. To pay for cost overruns at the Central Artery and other critical transportation needs across the Commonwealth without overly burdening future state taxpayers, the Commonwealth adopted a comprehensive transportation financing plan along lines proposed by the Foundation.

It is these achievements -- the adoption of public policies that will guide the long-term prosperity of the Commonwealth and its citizens for generations to come -- that are the mission and the purpose of the Taxpayers Foundation.

We are governed by a 60-member Board of Trustees that is representative of the membership at large. The Board's primary responsibility is to set the Foundation's overall policy. A 15-member Executive Committee, elected by the Board, oversees the implementation of policy.

A Program Planning Committee, comprising approximately 20 MTF members on a rotating basis, makes recommendations to the Board and Executive Committee for each year's program and priorities.

The Foundation has a staff of professionals from a variety of public policy backgrounds representing both legislative and executive experience and specializing in specific policy areas.