Ahead of Governor Maura Healey’s delivery of her State of the Commonwealth address, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance released the following statement:

“Governor Maura Healey has an opportunity to tackle head on the issue of our declining economic competitiveness and address the ever-growing flight of wealth and people from our state. Over the last year, Massachusetts has seen thousands more people leave, taking with them millions of dollars that are not being replaced. The emergency budget cuts Healey was forced to enact just days ago are only one symptom of this growing problem. If Governor Healey wants to be taken seriously by the business community, she must immediately take measures to stop this outflow. The best measure she could take is to cut broad-based taxes and eliminations to put us in line with our main competitors, which are New Hampshire and Florida. Taxpayers sincerely hope the Governor includes this in her address tonight. Not including it would be a tremendous wasted opportunity,” noted Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“Governor Healey also needs to address the elephant in the room, which is the immigration crisis precipitated by our open southern border, as well as the budget and housing crises that have accompanied it. Massachusetts desperately needs our Governor to confront the Biden-Harris administration for failing to secure our southern border and today’s address would be the perfect forum for her to put them on notice. Millions of immigrants crossing our southern border are incentivized to come to Massachusetts because of our state’s generous taxpayer funded benefits and right to shelter law, which currently has no residency requirement. If she wants to show people she’s serious about this crisis, she needs to use this address as an opportunity to call on the Biden administration to fix the border and call on the legislature to reform our benefits system that is acting as a magnet,” closed Craney.