Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, supported the governor's bill. In prepared testimony, he told Revenue Committee members that while the state's economic and policy landscape has changed in three key ways since the House and Senate walked away from last summer's proposal, "each of those changes calls for more significant and impactful tax relief than the proposals from 2022."

First, Howgate said, cost pressures on Bay Staters have only gotten worse. Consumer costs grew by 4.7 percent in 2021 but 9 percent in 2022. Plus, people are already leaving Massachusetts for lower-tax states and the adoption of a new income surtax could accelerate that trend. And, Howgate said, the state's financial position has gone from "strong to much stronger."