State lawmakers are dealing with a possible change to the income tax as they finalize a $38 billion budget bill.
The House and Senate have been in protracted negotiations for weeks over the final fate of the state's fiscal 2016 budget. In order to pay for tax benefits for poor working families — called the earned income credit — the Senate wants to freeze everyone's income tax rate at 5.15 percent instead of allowing it to fall to 5.1 percent next year.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo considers the freeze a tax hike and opposes it. He wants to keep current system where the rate should fall over time, the one voters approved at the polls. And that's just one sticking point in a budget made up of thousands of line items.
Gov. Baker supports the earned income credit, just not the Senate's method of paying for it. The legislature is set to put a final bill on his desk in the coming days.