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BOSTON (State House News Service) - There won't be any automatic tax rebates flowing to Bay Staters and catching lawmakers by surprise this fall.
A year after state tax collections smashed past the allowable amount and required state government to return nearly $3 billion to taxpayers, Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office confirmed Wednesday that a repeat is not in the cards.
Beacon Hill hauled in net tax revenues of $36,924,461,252 in fiscal year 2023, roughly $4.2 billion less than the cap set according to a voter-approved law known as Chapter 62F, DiZoglio's office said.
The law, enacted at the ballot box in 1986 following a campaign by the Citizens for Limited Taxation group, seeks to prevent the amount state government collects in taxes from growing faster than wages and salaries. If a year's tax haul as certified by the auditor surpasses that cap, the state must return the overage to taxpayers.
Massachusetts has only hit that cap twice: in 1987, a year after the measure's enactment, and last year, when a blistering pace of tax collections blew past the limit by more than $2.9 billion. The development appeared to blindside House and Senate Democrats, who in response delayed their tax relief plans -- a topic that still has not resulted in major changes to state law despite more than a year of debate.
Democrats also exempted new surtax revenues from counting toward the annual limit on tax collections, which could make automatic relief under Chapter 62F less likely in future years.
"I am grateful for the work of our audit team alongside the collaboration from the Departments of Revenue and Administration and Finance, as well as the Comptroller's Office, to help ensure we received accurate and detailed information to assist in completing this review," DiZoglio said in a statement.
Written By Chris Lisinski/SHNS
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