JANUARY
- Connecticut PLA Study. BHI showed that if Connecticut had constructed schools without union-only Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s), Connecticut taxpayers would have saved $503 million.
MARCH
- Gas Tax Study coverage in The Boston Herald . “While the proposed tax on motor fuels will provide more revenue to the state, it will also inflict serious damage on the Massachusetts economy. Residents will suffer a $843 million loss in disposable income, and the overall state economy will lose $207 million in production.”
- Massachusetts TCI Study. BHI found that implementing TCI would be devastating to the Massachusetts economy. The total loss of real GDP would be $788 million in 2022 and $671 million in 2026. Coverage of the study in The Boston Herald.
- BHI Director of Research William Burke in The Boston Globe arguing against the East-West Rail Link proposal (March 29).
APRIL
- BHI presented its updated FY21 revenue estimate to the Joint Ways and Means Committee at the Massachusetts State House.
MAY
- BHI’s summer internship program kicked off with interns joining the team from across the country and around the world.
- Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, BHI compiled a list of free-market oriented policy recommendations for Governor Baker’s Reopening Advisory Board. On May 15, BHI President David Tuerck took to the airwaves to discuss the recommendations on WBZ Radio’s Nightside with Dan Rea.
JUNE
- BHI released its 18th Annual State Competitiveness Report. Once again, BHI found Massachusetts in the top spot as the nation’s most competitive state. Click here for interactive data on the report.
- In Commonwealth Magazine, David Tuerck disputed the claim of 91 economists that the state would have to raise taxes in order to avoid COVID-induced revenue losses.
JULY
- Climate Change Litigation in Massachusetts and Coronavirus Conflation. “The latest filing by the AG’s office underscores the fundamental weakness of any attempt to use courts of law to hold any single entity responsible for a global crisis.” Presented in Commonwealth Magazine.
- A Threat to the COVID -19 Recovery: The Unemployment Benefits of the CARES Act . “After careful study, The Beacon Hill Institute recommends that Congress discontinue the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) as it crafts new COVID-19 related legislation.”
- Updated BHI state tax revenue estimate shows rebound in FY 2021 after significant loss in FY 2020 . “As the Massachusetts economy turns the corner amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, BHI projects that state tax revenues will total $27.731 billion in FY 2020, 6.6% below FY 2019, and $28.562 billion in FY 2021, 3.0% above FY 2020.”
- The Fiscal and Economic Effects of Phasing Out or Eliminating the Franchise Tax in North Carolina. “Eliminating the franchise tax entirely in North Carolina would have considerably larger positive impacts on the state economy than reducing it.”
AUGUST
- BHI’s summer internship program wrapped up for the year. Before they returned to school, the interns all produced a special edition of BHI’s flagship newsletter, NewsLink.
- Research Assistant Nick Sammarco wrote in The Boston Herald on the House’s radical omnibus budget.
SEPTEMBER
- The Fiscal & Economic Effects of Taxes under a Regional Ballot Initiative in Suffolk County. “The analysis shows that, within Suffolk County, tax surcharges of the kind considered here would inflict substantial losses in employment, investment, and disposable income.”
OCTOBER
- In a Boston Herald op-ed, President David Tuerck and Research Assistant Nick Sammarco praised Governor Baker for his refusal to raise taxes in submitting his revised budget. Director of External Relations Frank Conte published an article in The Boston Globe on the bleak outlook for the MBTA.
- BHI presented a revised FY 2021 revenue estimate to the Massachusetts legislature.
NOVEMBER
- The Transportation & Climate Initiative: Its Economic Impacts on Vermont. “An emissions cap, while providing negligible benefits, would cost thousands of jobs, millions in investment, and millions of dollars in lower incomes and real GDP by 2026.”
- The Transportation & Climate Initiative: Its Economic Impacts on Virginia. “The costs of Vermont partaking in the TCI far outweigh the benefits.”
- The Effects of a Carbon Tax on Motor Fuels in Rhode Island. “The cost imposed on the average Rhode Island household would total $1,205.”
DECEMBER
- Forthcoming: “BHI design for a flat tax in Nebraska.”