The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, the state's largest public advocacy group, today announced its newest venture. The Fiscal Alliance Foundation is a 501(c)(3) group aimed at building a stronger culture of accountability, transparency, and fiscal responsibility in Massachusetts government.

The Foundation's dual mission supports providing education for young people and supporting grassroots reform through the courts. 

Already, MassFiscal has made an impact with the Fiscal Fellows internship program. Too often, talented students who are inclined toward fiscally responsible reform leave Massachusetts for Washington D.C. to find employment in policy and politics. MassFiscal and the Fiscal Alliance Foundation provide local jobs with engaging and challenging work in the field. The entry-level jobs are primarily educational and have the added benefit of building a farm team of fiscally-interested professionals in the Commonwealth. 
 
The Foundation will also partner with outside groups in bringing legal action against the state to improve equity.  In its advocacy work, MassFiscal has encountered too many instances in which state law works against basic civil rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of association. In Massachusetts, the political playing field simply isn't level.

The Foundation’s first public effort will be a partnership with the business community to challenge the constitutionality of Prop. 80. The lawsuit was filed today in the Supreme Judicial Court. Hearings on the case are expected to be held early next year. Prop. 80 would amend the state Constitution to allow graduated income taxes and increase taxes on the state’s highest earners by 80%. Prop. 80 is an unconstitutional bailout for Beacon Hill politicians to spend more of our tax dollars on things like pay raises and pet pork projects.

The Foundation made an initial contribution of $20,000 toward the legal challenge to Prop. 80. You may read the Globe story about the lawsuit here. More to come…