Spending Up as Revenues Decline and Taxpayers Flee to Tax Friendly States

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance released the following statement today following the release of Governor Maura Healey’s FY2025 budget. The latest budget proposal comes in at $58 billion dollars, a 3 percent increase from last year, despite revenues declining and taxpayers fleeing to taxpayer friendly states like New Hampshire and Florida in large numbers.

The budget notably includes more spending on a wide variety of policies, including more money for undocumented immigrants trekking to the Commonwealth due to the state’s very generous welfare benefits and only right to shelter law in the country. The budget also sees more money being thrown at the MBTA, which has an endless appetite for mugging the taxpayers.

Governor Healey is proposing to spend $325 million out of next year’s budget on sheltering the immigrants surging across the open southern border and up to Massachusetts, hoping to take advantage of our state’s very generous welfare programs. Despite only funding the figure at $325 million, the Governor’s administration believes these immigrant related costs next year will ultimately reach close to a billion dollars.

While the Governor also reiterated her support for last year’s modest tax cuts, just last Friday, the Governor unveiled a plan to allow local municipalities to raise taxes on themselves through different ways such as an automobile excise tax and meals tax.

Even though Massachusetts is seriously considering a moratorium against building any new prisons, that did not deter Governor Healey’s irresponsible decision to close a long-standing jail in Concord to save $16 million dollars. The obvious question remains, if the state eventually passes a moratorium on building any more jails, how will it handle capacity issues in the future.

In another example of fiscal irresponsibility, the Governor decided to redirected funds from capital gains tax collections that would otherwise go to the state’s savings account.

“What Governor Maura Healey is proposing is an irresponsible budget, coming in higher than last year which was already too high, while missing the much-needed reforms to curtail our immigration problems along with making our state more competitive. The Governor is continuing to spend taxpayer money on immigrants, while cutting spending on taxpayers, closing a state jail, and shifting money away from dedicated savings. The Governor describes this budget as fiscally responsible, but this budget reflects a state that is fiscally crumbling from the top down,” stated Paul Diego Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“The Governor’s announcement last Friday would allow municipalities to raise taxes even more on their residents, all while throwing more money without any reforms at the MBTA and immigration related funding,” continued Craney.

“The Governor did not announce any major policies to make the state more economically competitive, nor did the Governor announce any reforms to a state that is increasing state spending while losing taxpayers. That may be good enough for this Governor but it’s not good enough for the people of Massachusetts,” continued Craney.