Rosenburg: Service tax may boost state revenues
Massachusetts is trying to solve an economic puzzle.
Unemployment is low and the economy is humming along, but tax revenues are sluggish and lawmakers are struggling to balance the state budget.
It’s not supposed to work this way.
In another boom during the late 1990s, the state’s economy was also buzzing. But back then, the boom was felt on Beacon Hill, too, which found state coffers flush with cash. Taxes were trimmed as officials strived to shed its “Taxachusetts” nickname that was scaring many businesses away.
Now? Revenues can’t seem to keep pace with spending, leading to chronic shortfalls in a $40 billion budget that the state’s constitution requires to be balanced.
Read more: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2017/04/rosenburg_service_tax_may_boost_state_revenues