April 17, 2009
And speaking of rolling the dice, Bay State budget-writers have been all too happy in recent years to balance the state budget on revenue from the highly volatile capital gains tax. But it’s a gamble that is not paying off for taxpayers.
As the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC) reported in a study a few months back, Massachusetts is more dependent on revenue from capital gains than every other state but Oregon and Connecticut. Such an over-reliance has led to unnecessary budget deficits when the real estate and stock markets sour, and the constant race to plug the holes with new revenue.