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BOSTON (State House News Service) — House and Senate lawmakers tasked with negotiating a tax relief bill said Monday morning they would work quickly to find an agreement on delivering aid to Bay Staters, after lawmakers chose to scrap similar plans last summer.
"I think it's important that we make sure that we get this done as quickly as we can, mainly because we've done a lot of work to keep our fiscal climate steady over these last couple of years," House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz said during a series of brief remarks before the conference committee moved into closed-door talks. "And if we don't really get this thing done, a lot of that good work will maybe go to waste, and so we want to make sure that we finish the job on this one, as we've obviously had some starts and stops over the last year or two related to these things."
Michlewitz is helming the conference committee alongside Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues, both of whom are also the lead negotiators on the fiscal 2024 budget.
"I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate and good friends from the House to reconcile the differences of these bills as quickly as possible in order to provide the citizens of the commonwealth much-needed tax relief," Rodrigues said.
Negotiators will need to navigate major differences between the two tax relief bills, including the price tag. The Senate's package, which was unveiled after April tax revenues plummeted, would cost the state about $590 million annually, while the House's would eventually cost close to $1.1 billion per year once certain measures are fully phased in.
Written by Alison Kuznitz/SHNS
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