Healey defends pushing $1b tax package, despite tax revenue shortfall
Governor Maura Healey doubled down Tuesday on her decision to cut $375 million in spending, which amounts to hundreds of millions cut from local earmarks and state programs.
When asked on GBH’s Boston Public Radio if she had any regrets about pushing a $1 billion tax package last year — one that included many benefits targeted to the business community, heirs of sizable estates, and investors — Healey said “not at all.”
The historic tax package has been criticized by progressive groups and some Democratic state lawmakers, who were critical of the bill when it passed last year.
“The tax cut, was absolutely ... imperative,” Healey said during GBH’s “Ask the Governor” segment Tuesday. “It was imperative to make this state more affordable for people as a result.”
Healey also defended her decision at an earlier appearance at the State House, where she announced a $1.23 billion bond bill to update the state’s IT systems and other programs.
She said the cuts in spending are more like “a rebalancing” and won’t ultimately affect the state’s credit rating.
The fact that the state can propose to borrow money shows “a sign of strength” in the state’s fiscal standing, she added.
“It shows the strength of our fiscal standing right now as a state is the fact that we’re able to propose a bond bill which is basically the vehicle that will allow us to borrow money and then use that money to make these investments,” she said at the State House. “So I think it’s a sign of strength.”
The cuts announced on Monday were prompted by a shortfall of tax revenue, which is running $769 million, or about 4 percent, behind projections midway through the current fiscal year. December marked the sixth successive month that saw tax revenue fall below what state officials expected.
In a letter to lawmakers Monday, Healey said cuts to the state’s $56 billion spending plan for fiscal 2024 won’t impact school funding or local aid, nor are state officials planning to lay off any government employees.