A Massachusetts state task force has concluded that dozens of state tax exemptions have to be eliminated to encourage economic growth and add more revenues to the public coffers, according to a report Tuesday in the
Boston Globe.
The Tax Expenditure Commission, the newspaper said, plans to make its final report to Gov. Deval Patrick and the legislature next month. But a preliminary outline makes it clear that current exemptions estimated at 200 or more are costing the state about $26 billion in lost revenues each year.
That is $4 billion more, the Globe noted, than the state actually collects.
The report will not identify or recommend which tax breaks should be killed or at least scaled back, the Globe said. But some allow taxpayers to write off all sorts of things — ranging from funeral items to cement mixers — according to the state Department of Revenue.
“There’s a suspicion that we’ve got too many,’’ Jay Gonzalez, the task force chairman and the state’s secretary of administration and finance said of the exemptions. “The exception exceeds the rule.’’
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