A report from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation released earlier this year found the MBTA must hire 2,800 workers within the next year to meet its budgeted headcount of 7,600 personnel. That is factoring in 1,000 expected departures from April...

Limited staffing means more safety issues, reduced bus service, and increased service interruptions system-wide, as well as stalled progress on fixing speed restrictions, according to reports by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation in April and the...

The House and Senate are set to enact a Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget, totaling $56.2 billion. The conference committee report was filed on July 30th, one month after the start of the new fiscal year. This year, separate tax bill negotiations, the new...

The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation is warning that any change to the tax code would be premature, considering the surtax hasn’t been in effect for a full year. “If we want to have a discussion about how to implement the surtax in a way that’s...

Three years ago, deliberations on the fiscal year 2021 budget stretched into December while state government grappled with pandemic upheaval. But other than that outlier, overdue budget talks until this year had not stretched past July 23 in more...

The longer the state goes without a plan in place, the more it impacts the ability to implement new programs or expand existing ones, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and former senior policy advisor to Senate...

Health and human services’ current structure does have advantages, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog. The marginalized communities the office is most likely to serve tend to need...

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation think tank, said the escalating credits designed to prime housing development take aim at the lack of affordable housing strangling many Bay Staters. “This has a significant cost...

As states across the country, including Massachusetts, are facing workforce shortages, employers are struggling to hire the talent they need to succeed and remain competitive in the marketplace. While there are many reasons behind the shortages, a...

“House and Senate conferees have the opportunity to negotiate a compromise tax relief bill that adheres to these principles, includes all of the proposals put forward by both branches, and remains within the $600 million set aside for FY 2024,” MTF...