Massachusetts Commission Recommends Tax Break Review
Date:
04/23/2012
Contributor:
Sarah Birnbaum Download:
A Massachusetts commission comprised of elected officials from both parties as well as economists unanimously approved recommendations today to track and assess the performance of business tax breaks.
Massachusetts Auditor Suzanne Bump, who serves on the panel, says the state pours billions of dollars into business tax breaks. But it often doesn't know whether the incentives are actually spurring job growth.
"For about 2 billion dollars of business tax expenditures that we give out every year, about 1 billion of them had no mechanisms to provide for accountability and transparency."
The panel is recommending fewer tax breaks and regular reviews of the ones already on the books. It also wants the Governor and Legislature to set a goal for each tax break and then establish metrics to measure whether the break is effective. But economist Michael Widmer of the business backed Massachusetts Taxpayers foundation says while the recommendations are well intentioned, it's difficult to judge how well corporate tax breaks work.
"When an individual purchases legal services, he or she doesn't pay a tax, or a haircut - no tax. How are we going to assess whether that's good or bad? That's a public policy decision."
It's now up to the Legislature whether to adopt the Commission's recommendations. Corporate tax breaks have been under greater scrutiny on Beacon Hill since Fidelity Investments announced it planned to move more than one-thousand jobs out of state and Evergreen Solar decided to close a factory in Devens and lay off hundreds of workers. Both companies were receiving tax incentives.
