Beacon Hill Log Jam a Victory for the People of Massachusetts

Massachusetts taxpayers woke up this morning with a little more money in their paychecks as lawmakers failed to get a series of pieces of legislation over the finish line that would have resulted in higher taxes, fees, regulations, and restrictions for Massachusetts taxpayers. Among them are Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s naive and misguided attempt to raise commercial property taxes, and two versions of an energy bill that included policies that would raise costs for ratepayers and give DPU free reign to cut off natural gas for customers. Both pieces of legislation would have resulted in additional costs for Massachusetts residents and MassFiscal has firmly opposed these policy goals since they were introduced this legislative session.

“Egos may be bruised at the State House, but taxpayers should be feeling pretty good right now. Legislative leaders did not get their way with a handful of pieces of legislation and the taxpaying residents of Massachusetts were the winners. MassFiscal is pleased to have played an important role this legislative session with a voice protecting the taxpayers. We are the first and the last wall of resistance before another set of tax hike policies become law and we will not break. Our commit lies with the taxpayers and we will continue to disrupt the plans of State House leaders,” noted Paul D. Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“Anyone who walks down the streets of Boston will immediately notice all the vacant commercial properties. These empty office spaces represent the large scale failures of the Wu administration. If Mayor Wu had her way, she would have made Boston’s economic recovery more painful and much slower. Offering ‘free’ stuff which the taxpayers pay for is not free and it does very little to bring down overall costs. Boston politicians need to embrace the idea of making Boston more affordable by lowering taxes and eliminating regulations,” continued Craney.

“Some legislative leaders were advancing a wild idea to gradually shut off natural gas to Massachusetts ratepayers. They wanted to do this by giving the state the authority to refuse this service to Massachusetts ratepayers and force natural gas infrastructure to go into disrepair, all while skyrocketing electricity prices. This would result in an enormous financial strain for the millions of  people in Massachusetts. This policy represents a very rigid ideologically driven mindset that should be resisted. There is no other way to describe this failed policy idea than harmful. The people of Massachusetts scored a major victory and MassFiscal hopes to deliver more victories next legislative session,” concluded Craney.