Healey’s budget, tax plan chewed up

The governor’s plan to keep the state affordable while helping those most in need seemingly does not go far enough for her legislative colleagues.

“Six hundred dollars is a great child tax credit. My chief of staff is paying $33,000 a year for one child in daycare. They will not benefit from any of these packages,” state Sen. Cindy Friedman told the governor Tuesday.

Appearing before a joint committee of the Legislature, Gov. Maura Healey made her first official pitch to lawmakers for both her fiscal 2024 budget and an about $859 million tax cut plan that goes along with it.

The plan would see the rental deduction and senior circuit breaker doubled, the short-term capital gains tax slashed by more than half and the estate tax threshold tripled. It would also grant a $600 per dependent tax credit to parents of children 13 and under or those taking care of dependent adults.

It’s not too different from a plan offered by the former Gov. Charlie Baker which the Legislature very nearly passed last summer, but it’s also, according to Friedman, perhaps too little to keep people from leaving.

“We have a workforce that we are desperate to keep because they are the people who are going to keep our engine going,” she said. “What I’m trying to figure out is how are we marrying this tax package with what I think is our really biggest, fundamental problem, and that is keeping our workforce in this state.”

Healey’s budget, all $55.5 billion of it, does not do everything she wishes it would, she told Friedman.

Secretary of the Commonwealth

Bill Galvin told lawmakers he saw a glaring error in Healey’s spending plan. Budget authors, Galvin said, had failed to include the requested $26 million he predicted his office would need to conduct elections, instead funding just $18.6 million.