Massachusetts over the past 16 years has more than doubled the amount of tax breaks it provides businesses to spur economic development but has only a vague idea whether the incentives are worthwhile, according to a new study by a Boston think tank.
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found that the cost of the 58 “special business tax breaks” — covering everything from making movies to selling aircraft parts — has jumped to $770 million from $342 million in 1996. Unlike traditional spending items, such as grants or highway projects, tax breaks are generally not included in the state’s annual budget, so they don’t receive the same scrutiny as other programs.
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Isn't it ironic that Hollywood producers, directors and actors -- many of whom are millionaires and Obama supporters -- often receive state subsidies and tax breaks to make their films? "Entertainer, heal thyself."
I think we aught to adopt a 3 year moratorium on all taxes. Yes, I know what that would entail. But maybe then we as a society will see how much value we receive from paying a fair and reasonable tax. We are undermining our own sense of community and society in our attempt to starve the tax man.
Mr. Wallack also forgot to mention the Deeval regime's proudest 'progressive' state tax and spend play, to the solar panel manufacturer that laid off its 800 employees from a plant at Devens, MA. Deeval just loves to play at fostering business, tho one has to credit his cronies with smartening up on the video game scheme failed by a former Red Sox pitcher who bamboozled state officials in Rhode Island. The movies thing is the best, though. That development schemes for multimillion studioes in Plymouth and at ex-South Weymouth Naval Air Station seem to be dead issues. The state agency that seeks to attract tourists from Latvia and South Africa and Idaho has taken over the state's film office, though why tourists and movie actors coalesce is hard to understand. And on and on ... Deeval likes to think medical supplies is a good idea - maybe he is correct. And all those progessive, environmentally correct "green" projects? Well, sure, just ask the guy who has chopped down hundreds of Richmond trees to make way for a purty rural manse approachable only after public money repairs the back road so the United States Presidential Wife won't bounce around to a cadence of pot holes.