Gov. Maura Healey has “no plans to propose new taxes or raise existing ones,” she told business leaders Tuesday.
Healey took office in 2023 pledging to make Massachusetts more affordable, equitable and competitive. She reiterated that call in a speech to the New England Council at the Boston Harbor Hotel, while also acknowledging that the state faces a tight financial picture.
“We started with cutting taxes — and you can remind Gov. [Chris] Sununu that I'm proud to be the first governor in over 20 years to cut taxes, a $1 [billion] tax cut that saves everyone money,” she said. “After working hard to deliver on that, I can assure you that we have no plans to propose new taxes or raise existing ones.”
Sununu, the New Hampshire governor, often touts his state as a “tax-free suburb of Boston” to pitch the Granite State as an alternative to Massachusetts.
He also chimed in after Healey’s transportation secretary, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, recently suggested the possibility of tolls at the Massachusetts border. While Healey pushed back on the idea, her Republican counterpart to the north told the Boston Herald that it offered “more reason for more Massachusetts residents to make the permanent move to New Hampshire.”
Healey’s tax comments come in a fiscal year in which sluggish tax revenue collections prompted her to make budget cuts and impose hiring restrictions at some state agencies, and as lawmakers are crafting spending plans for the new budget year that starts in July. At the same time, an influx of new immigrant arrivals to Massachusetts has pushed the state’s emergency shelter costs to nearly $1 billion a year.
“I think we all wish we had more change in our pocket,” Healey said, adding that her administration is carefully monitoring tax collections and will “make spending decisions accordingly.”
Talking to reporters after her speech Tuesday, Healey did not put a hard timeline on how long she sees new state taxes or tax hikes as off the table.
“That’s how I see it now and for the foreseeable future,” she said. “Yeah, no taxes. I’ve been focused on trying to lower taxes.”
However, one Healey-sponsored bill pending on Beacon Hill would allow communities to adopt a new fee on certain high-value real estate sales without first seeking legislative permission. Another would let cities and towns opt-in to increasing their local taxes on meals and lodging, or add a new surcharge on top of existing vehicle excise taxes.
“Those are local options, and what we’ve heard from some communities is that they want more tools at their disposal to deal with some of the challenges that they’re facing,” Healey told reporters. “And so that simply allows communities to make a decision, not the state.”
The real estate transfer fee, also called a transfer tax, has drawn opposition from business groups. Many of those groups support other major provisions of the broader Healey housing bill that proposes the fee.
New England Council CEO Jim Brett asked Healey about the transfer tax, saying that provision was “receiving some resistance” from lawmakers and describing her $4 billion housing production bill as a whole as “desperately” needed.
Healey replied that it’s her responsibility to put forward “policy ideas that are going to help us spark production.”
“A lot of communities, they come to us and say, you know, ‘It’s such a pain that we have to go before the Legislature to get approval when we want to do something like a transfer tax,’” Healey said.
Hammering a point she’s often made, the governor identified the state’s high cost of housing as “the number-one issue hindering our economic competitiveness.” She urged employers and business leaders to help make the case for more housing production in their communities.
“Go to the planning board meeting. Go to the zoning board meeting,” she said. “Go to this stuff. Speak about the imperative. Talk about your experience as an employer, or as a company — the challenges — and help us make the case together for what we need to do.”
Healey’s housing bill could soon surface for a vote in the House of Representatives, though it’s not yet clear how closely a House redraft would align with Healey's original proposal.
House Speaker Ron Mariano has previously said that he would bring the bill to the House floor some time after representatives finished debating next year’s state budget. That bill passed the House last Friday on a 153-4 vote.
