State tax collections kept humming along in November, with revenues coming in nearly 14 percent above last year and nearly 9 percent over the projections on which this year’s budget was based.
For the first five months of the fiscal year, revenues were $2.1 billion higher than they were in the same period last year and $914 million, or 7.2 percent, more than projected.
Officials said the gushing state revenues reflect increases in tax income across the board, but they cautioned to not read too much into the numbers given that November is often a small month for revenue collections and Massachusetts hasn’t quite reached the halfway mark in the fiscal year yet.
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Editor, CommonWealth
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
About Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl is the editor of CommonWealth magazine. Bruce came to CommonWealth from the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper. At CommonWealth, Bruce helped launch the magazine’s website and has written about a wide range of issues with a special focus on politics, tax policy, energy, and gambling. Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He lives in Dorchester.
Still, the trendlines are extremely positive and the upward movement in revenues comes at a time that massive amounts of funds are flowing into the state from the federal government. The amounts are so big that state officials are having difficulty deciding what to do with it.
The Legislature on Friday, for example, approved a $4 billion American Rescue Plan Act spending plan and lawmakers still have to decide how to spend another $2.3 billion.
The heavy inflow of cash may pose problems for backers of a constitutional amendment that heads to the ballot next year. The amendment would impose an income tax surcharge on people earning more than $1 million a year.
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