THE HOUSE’S TOP budget official said his spending plan for fiscal 2022 doesn’t address outdated or ineffective tax breaks highlighted in a recent commission report and he doesn’t plan to push for separate legislation to deal with them.
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz of Boston, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, served on the Massachusetts Tax Expenditure Review Commission, which issued a report in March rating 26 tax breaks. Some, like the life science credit, received high marks, but others, including the film tax credit and an exemption for alcoholic beverages from the state sales tax, were flagged for their relatively low benefits and high cost.
The ratings, covering tax breaks worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, were endorsed unanimously by the commission.
The Tax Expenditure Review Commission was created because tax breaks typically get approved but then never reviewed to see if they actually work. Sen. Adam Hinds of Pittsfield, a member of the commission, said he wants to use the commission’s reviews of the more than 200 tax breaks on the books as a guide for eliminating, scaling back, or modifying the measures.
Michlewitz on Wednesday showed little interest in tackling tax breaks, while House Speaker Ron Mariano, who joined him at a press conference to unveil the House budget, is aggressively pushing for an extension of the film tax credit, which is currently set to expire at the end of next year.
The film tax credit reimburses movie and TV productions for 25 percent of whatever they spend in the state. Mariano says the film tax credit has worked extremely well in attracting films and TV shows to Massachusetts, generating lots of jobs in the process. The Tax Expenditure Commission said the film tax credit has generated a considerable number of jobs but at a very high cost — $100,000 per job.
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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.
The House budget proposal did not include any provisions to eliminate the current sunset on the film tax credit.
The politics of tax breaks could get interesting as the legislative session progresses. The film tax credit is likely to become a bargaining chip in negotiations between the House and Senate over tax breaks or possibly other issues.
