The MassFiscal team will be having its first Quarterly Quencher this Thursday. Every quarter MassFiscal gets our team of fiscally conservative individuals together to go out after work and have a few drinks. It is a great opportunity to take a load off and meet other like-minded people!



The event will be held at Envoy in Boston. Plan to meet at 5:30pm. For more information, click here.


21 and over only. The bar does I.D. at the door.

Senate Ethics Committee Remains Less Active than a Hundred Year Old Tomb

(BOSTON)— As reported yesterday, the IRS and FBI investigations have subpoenaed records from the Senate and from members in addition to Joyce. This morning, Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called on Senator Cynthia Cream, Chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics to open an immediate and public investigation into Senator Brian Joyce and the use of his senate office for personal enrichment. Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance previously called on Senator Joyce to resign and for Senate President Rosenberg to begin the process of expulsion.

“It was Joyce's decision alone to use his office as a one stop shop for personal enrichment. It was the Senate President’s decision to turn a blind eye to his behavior that today brings the entire body into the mess. Not surprising that until now, they decided to have an ethics committee that remains less active than a hundred year old tomb,” Paul Craney, Executive Director of The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said. “As chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Senator Cream has a unique opportunity to show the public that the Senate itself is as concerned as the IRS and the FBI about the abuse of power and unethical conduct of its members.”

Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance’s letter to Senator Cream may be found here and was sent to members of the Senate.

(BOSTON)--The Legislature, meeting in joint session today, voted to move along the so-called Millionaire's Tax. The tax scheme, would increase rates by 80 percent for some. For the proposed constitutional amendment to advance, only 50 members needed to vote yes. Similar schemes have been rejected by the voters five times, each time failing by wide margins (1962, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1994).

“Proposition 80, which would establish a graduated income tax, is bad enough in itself, but this specific measure is poorly designed. Earmarking revenue and specifying tax brackets aren't the sorts of things that belong in our constitution," Paul Craney, Executive Director of The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said. "Putting such a muddled mess on the ballot is unfair to voters.”

Craney also pointed out that increasing taxes generally backfires on lawmaker’s intent on raising revenue. A single taxpayer, David Tepper, left New Jersey because of a similar tax scheme earlier this year, taking his investment company with him. Estimates put the loss of revenue upwards of $140,000,000 a year (New York Post, 4/10/16).

"And when the tax doesn't generate the expected revenue," Craney said, "That million-dollar threshold will crash down on the rest of us."

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