Yesterday, Governor Maura Healey made her second State of the Commonwealth address. While her speech paints a rosy picture of progress for our state, her administration’s policies fail to address the root causes of the challenges facing Massachusetts families and businesses. While the Governor lauds her efforts to make Massachusetts more affordable and competitive, the reality is far from her rhetoric. Common sense doesn’t seem to be prevailing.
The Governor’s celebration of her modest tax cuts, passed two years ago, is undercut by her administration’s heavy reliance on the economically harmful income surtax and her turning a blind eye to the Commonwealth’s record spending. If the Governor feels modest tax cuts are worth celebrating nearly two years after they were enacted, why didn’t the Governor expand more tax cuts in 2024, or offer a plan to cut additional tax cuts in 2025?
As of January 1, New Hampshire eliminated the interest and dividends tax on income, becoming the 8th state in the country with no taxes on income, a point New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte will constantly remind Massachusetts taxpayers for the next two years. The only thing Governor Healey is celebrating is building a fiscal house of cards. Without slowing the rapid expansion of state spending and enacting meaningful tax reform that reduces the burden on families and businesses, Massachusetts will continue to struggle to retain residents and attract investment. High taxes and runaway spending are driving people and businesses to much more competitive states, and the Governor’s plans do little to change that trajectory.
Additionally, Massachusetts’ Right to Shelter law remains outdated and unsustainable, incentivizing misuse and contributing to the housing crisis by drawing in far more people than our state can realistically accommodate. The Governor’s recently proposed reforms are far too modest and contain too many loopholes to change our status as a magnet state for illegal and inadmissible migrants from across the globe, and do nothing to pay the extreme price tag for those who have already taken advantage. Governor Healey must lead a real and substantial effort to reform this law, or just do away with it all together, to better serve both residents and those in need. Ignoring this issue will only deepen the state’s affordability challenges. For two years, Massachusetts has been living in a ‘state of emergency’ under Governor Healey, she needs to fix the program or end it already.
The Governor joined a long list of politicians who stopped prioritizing cost at the MBTA. Her latest announcement is nothing more than a bail out for MBTA, with billions upon billions of dollars of taxpayer money at stake, despite the troubled agency running a structural deficit. The Governor is asking taxpayers to pay more into a troubled agency, without looking at how to curb deficit spending and prioritize cost. For example, in 2019 when the MBTA last balanced its budget, a bus ride per hour (operating cost for vehicle revenue hour) was $153 and in New York City that same category was $258.
In 2023, the same year Governor Healey hired General Manager Phil Eng for the MBTA, Massachusetts surpassed NYC spending for bus hour expense at $297 while New York City was at $275. New York saw an increase of 6.5% while Massachusetts saw an increase of 94% during that same period. The taxpayers don’t need to bail out the MBTA, and they certainly don’t need to hear from the Transportation Funding Task Force, or from Secretary Tibbits Nutt. Taxpayers desperately need the return of the Fiscal and Management Control Board for the MBTA.
Despite promises of affordability, the Governor’s and legislature’s climate agenda—including excessive clean energy mandates and an aggressive push for electric vehicles and home heating—has made electricity and heating costs unaffordable for many families. Rolling back these mandates is essential to ensure that hardworking residents can keep their homes warm and the lights on without breaking the bank. Massachusetts cannot afford to prioritize ideological goals over the immediate needs of its residents and should take lessons from the states our residents are fleeing to.
Further, the administration’s push for total electric vehicle adoption imposes impossible requirements, financial strain on families, businesses, and the products that are shipped into the state. The cost of EVs, combined with insufficient charging infrastructure, makes this mandate impractical and unrealistic. We are already starting to see the negative impacts this year. As of January 1, Massachusetts is mandating truck dealers to sell one electric powered truck for every ten diesel trucks sold. According to the Massachusetts Trucking Association, this time last year there were over 1,000 new vehicles on order but this year there are less than 10. Just one charge for these electric trucks takes the same amount of power a home needs in one month. In the case of businesses, they’re being forced to purchase electric trucks that simply do not exist. Instead of forcing one-size-fits-all solutions, the Governor should focus on providing choice and cost effectiveness for all residents that will maximize affordability.
Governor Healey’s ambitious spending plans and lofty goals lack the substance needed to address the tremendous structural challenges facing our state. The administration’s refusal to embrace meaningful tax cuts, prioritize cost containment, reform outdated laws, and roll back harmful energy mandates will only exacerbate both the competitiveness and affordability crises Massachusetts families and businesses continue to face.
We call on Governor Healey to focus on common sense solutions: cut taxes and cut runaway spending, reform the broken Right to Shelter system, and roll back energy and vehicle mandates that hurt affordability and reliability. Massachusetts deserves a government that works for its people, not one that pushes them further to the brink for the fanfare of elites.
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