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."

Doug Howgate, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, noted that paring the short-term capital gains tax will still help address some of the impact from the millionaires tax.

“Nothing we’re talking about in the tax code . . . is going to be a silver bullet in terms of the challenges we face,” he said. “I do think it’s a strong first step.”

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said Healey’s tax relief plan would make Massachuetts “less of an outlier” on taxes and help “retain and grow its population, jobs and investment.”

“Significant tax relief is not only affordable, it is critical,” Howgate said in a statement. “We need to address the trends that are pricing out low- and middle-income residents, and stop incentivizing higher earning residents and businesses to leave.”

“We need to address the trends that are pricing out low- and middle-income residents, and stop incentivizing higher earning residents and businesses to leave,” Doug Howgate, the President of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said in a statement. “The proposal laid out today would help make Massachusetts less of an outlier compared to its peers and help the Commonwealth retain and grow its population, jobs, and investment. We look forward to working (with) the Administration and legislative leaders to advance tax relief this year.”

“Significant tax relief is not only affordable, it is critical. The Healey-Driscoll Administration’s package would ease the cost crunch that’s making it tough for Massachusetts to attract and retain families, seniors, and employers,” said Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Doug Howgate.

The nonpartisan Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said Healey’s plan noticeably fell short of the foundation’s own $1.3 billion tax relief vision.

But the foundation remarked Healey’s proposal is significant and described the package as “a strong start to tax relief discussions this year.”

“It’s a big step in the right direction,” said Doug Howgate, the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, in an interview. “It shows she’s pragmatic and she wants to solve problems.”

Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, praised the underpinnings of Healey’s tax relief package to “retain families, seniors and employers.”

“The proposal laid out today would help make Massachusetts less of an outlier compared to its peers and help the commonwealth retain and grow its population, jobs, and investment,” Howgate said in a statement.

Today, Governor Healey announced the details of a tax relief proposal that she plans to file in conjunction with her Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget proposal on March 1st. The tax package, which has an FY 2024 budget impact of $742 million and an annualized impact of $986.5 million, shares key elements with House and Senate tax bills from 2022 and follows through on the Governor’s campaign promise to more than double the child and dependent tax credit.

But tax reform can’t fall by the wayside again. Massachusetts is indeed a wonderful place to live — for those can afford it. So expanding the existing child and dependent care tax credit would, according to the Taxpayers Foundation, benefit more than 500,000 tax filers caring for more than 1 million children and dependents.