Our New “Spring Forward” Series

This weekend, it will be simple to move the clocks forward, but it will take a lot more work in the coming weeks to move Beacon Hill forward.

To help educate and drive action, we are thrilled to host a series of virtual events about critical policies that the State House needs to pass and how we can work together to make it happen. This March, we’re kicking it off with the following two events:

Wednesday, March 11: How MA Can to Stand Up to ICE

7 pm, Zoom, RSVP here

Every day brings new horror stories about ICE’s violent, law-breaking activity across the country and here in Massachusetts. What can a state like Massachusetts do to stand up to ICE? Laura Rotolo, the Field Director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, will explain what we can get done this legislative session in Massachusetts and how you can help make it happen.

Wednesday, March 18: How MA Can Opt Out of Trump’s Corporate Tax Cuts

7 pm, Zoom, RSVP here

Trump’s regressive corporate tax cuts are going to cost Massachusetts nearly half a billion dollars this year alone — on top of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other federal programs we rely on. States across the country are already saying NO and opting out, protecting essential revenue, and Massachusetts needs to join them. Phineas Baxandall of Mass Budget explains what’s at stake.

In solidarity,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

TOMORROW: Hearing on the PROTECT Act

Wednesday, March 3, 11 am, State House, B1

The PROTECT Act (H.5158) was filed just over a month ago by the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus to strengthen protections for our immigrant communities and make sure that state and local law enforcement are following their duty to serve and protect, rather than doing the work of federal immigration enforcement.

The House Public Safety Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow, and the Protecting Massachusetts Communities Coalition has put together a testimony guide to help you write testimony to the committee about why it is so vital for Massachusetts to take action to stand up to ICE and protect our immigrant communities.

PM in the News: “The question needs an answer, and straightaway: What should state do with US tax code changes?”

Yawu Miller, “The question needs an answer, and straightaway: What should state do with US tax code changes?,” Dorchester Reporter, February 20, 2026.

Progressive Massachusetts Policy Director Jonathan Cohn argued that Massachusetts should follow their lead.

“When we fight to do big things in the Commonwealth, we so often hear that we don’t have the money,” he said. “That same line is rarely invoked when it comes to corporate handouts. But let me be clear: We don’t have the money to do this right now, given looming federal cuts. Other states across the country have already taken action. Let’s not wait too long to join them.”

Gorzkowicz said the phased-in approach, as an expansion of Pass-through Entity excise taxes expected to generate $100 million, will mean the commonwealth won’t see a net reduction in revenue over the next two years.

“We wanted to make sure that we preserve our competitive advantage, support those industries that are important to our economy, while also insulating and preserving programs and services that might otherwise be impacted from the implementation of these,” he said.

While Gorzkowicz cited tax breaks as a means of keeping Massachusetts competitive, Cohn pushed back on that notion.

“Our competitiveness is always based on our investments in education and transportation and healthcare and housing,” he said. “We don’t bribe the rich to stay here. They come and stay here because they want to live here and send their kids to school here because we invest in education and housing, because we make our health care system affordable and accessible. All of this requires investment You can’t burn it up in the trash can of tax cuts for big corporations.”

Testimony: MA Needs to Opt Out of Trump’s Regressive Tax Cuts

Thursday, February 12, 2026 

Chair Madaro, Chair Eldridge, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth.

Since taking office just over a year ago, the Trump administration, along with the Republican Congress, have been hard at work to redistribute wealth in this country upwards and to take an axe to government services. They have been clear that their agenda is to make government work worse for everyday people: less responsive, less knowledgeable, less efficient. 

The regressive corporate tax cuts in the “Big Ugly Bill” were central to that agenda: they exist to increase the economic and political power of the rich and to force cuts to essential services that we all rely on. 

Last summer, our Congressional delegation was united in voting NO on that bill. We should send a clear NO to allowing the tax changes from it to be automatically written into our tax code. 

The Governor’s proposal to protect Massachusetts from the massive budget impact of the Trump corporate tax cuts this fiscal year is important, but it’s not enough: we shouldn’t adopt these Trump’s regressive corporate tax breaks at all.

Permanently preventing state-level adoption of the Trump corporate tax cuts would preserve  $463 million in state revenue in this year’s budget alone and an additional $990 million over the next five years. That is money that can be invested in health care, in education, in food assistance, in transportation, and in so much more, at a time when the federal government is no longer a partner but often an active saboteur. 

We don’t need to bribe corporations by throwing money at them for research investments they made years ago in other states. Our investments in our Commonwealth are what make it a good place to do business. The idea that we would spend vital resources on such corporate handouts when our state remains one of the most unequal is galling. 

When we fight to do big things in the Commonwealth, we so often hear that “we don’t have the money.” That same line is rarely invoked when it comes to corporate handouts. But let me be clear: we don’t have the money to do this right now given looming federal cuts. 

Other states across the country have already taken action. Let’s not wait too long to join them. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Just Say NO to Trump’s Regressive Corporate Tax Giveaways

Trump’s corporate tax cuts are going to cost Massachusetts nearly half a billion dollars this year alone — on top of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other federal programs we rely on.

Here’s why: States use the federal tax code as a starting point to calculate how much people and corporations owe in taxes. Trump’s changes to the federal tax code cut taxes for the rich and large corporations. So, unless we act now, these cuts will be baked into our state’s tax code, meaning big tax cuts for the rich and large corporations.

We don’t have to let this happen. Tell your lawmakers now: reject Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and protect Massachusetts.

Gov. Healey recently introduced a bill that starts to address the problem. But there’s a catch: although her bill would defer these regressive corporate tax handouts for this budget cycle, it leaves them in place for future ones. Regressive corporate tax cuts are bad this year, and they will still be bad next year.

As we already face a budget crisis due to Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, we can’t afford even more cuts to health care, food assistance, education, and other essential public services.

States like California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, as well as the District of Columbia, have already taken action to address this problem. Massachusetts should join them.

Can you write to your state legislators today?

EMAIL YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS

Already emailed your state legislators about this? Then call their offices to follow up.

MA Senate Embraces Paternalism and Pettiness in Rejecting Boston Home Rule Petition

On Thursday, the MA Senate decided to take a victory lap for passing a series of bills that will drain municipalities of much-needed revenue in light of what could be a bleak state budget and amidst federal sabotage.

Although the bills were not fully ill-intentioned, the efforts to provide opportunities for relief from property taxes run into a problem: if there is no ability to raise the revenue from elsewhere, than cities and towns simply lose revenue. Cities and towns should want to create more progressive tax codes, and rather than allowing targeted property tax relief combined with way new progressive revenue opportunities, the State Senate again signaled its hostility to a proposal from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to shift some of the residential property tax share to the commercial real estate industry.

Her proposal would have blunted property tax increases for residential homeowners and decreased tax cuts for skyscrapers. However, the State Senate has decided that it knows what is better for Boston than the Mayor, the City Council, and the House of Representatives, voting 33 to 5 against the proposal. It answers “Whose side are you on?” quite clearly.

The home rule process in Massachusetts is broken, and cities and towns deserve more flexibility, not being prevented from raising necessary revenue by archaic strictures or the misguided and outdated “Prop 2 1/2” law.

Letter: “Some lawmakers throw up their hands, but there’s much that can be done”

Enid Eckstein, “Some lawmakers throw up their hands, but there’s much that can be done,” Boston Globe, January 12, 2026.

Anjali Huynh rightly calls out Massachusetts Democrats for being less aggressive than lawmakers in other blue states in “building an anti-Trump wall,” but I disagree with the contention of some that there is only so much the Legislature can do. It can do plenty.

As legislators returned last week, they confronted a loss of $3.5 billion in annual federal aid, and more in lost tax revenue, due to the Trump administration’s federal tax changes. Many Massachusetts residents will be squeezed by rising health care costs, and tens of thousands risk losing health care coverage or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

Massachusetts can join neighboring states and pass a measure that would raise as much as $400 million in new annual revenue by fighting offshore tax dodging by large global companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Walmart.

The Legislature also can opt out of state-level adoption of the Trump corporate tax cuts and preserve more than $400 million in state revenue this year alone. Maine, Rhode Island, and other states have already done this.

Lawmakers also could use a reasonable amount of the $8.6 billion rainy day fund to fill the holes in key services without a long-term impact on the fund itself. The fund was created to act as a buffer for shortfalls during emergencies by preventing drastic cuts to health care, education, and public safety. This is an emergency.

Massachusetts legislators have many tools in their toolbox, and it is time to start using them.

Enid Eckstein

Jamaica Plain

The writer is on the steering committees of Jamaica Plain Progressives and Raise Up Massachusetts.

Memo to Beacon Hill: Just Say NO to Trump’s Regressive Corporate Tax Cuts

Trump’s corporate tax cuts are going to cost Massachusetts nearly half a billion dollars this year alone — on top of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other federal programs we rely on.

But we don’t have to let this happen. Tell your lawmakers now: reject Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and protect Massachusetts.

Here’s the context: States use the federal tax code as a starting point to calculate how much people and corporations owe in taxes. Trump’s changes to the federal tax code cut taxes for the rich and large corporations (by more than $3 billion/year in MA alone). So, unless we act now, these cuts will be baked into our state’s tax code, meaning big tax cuts for the rich and large corporations.

Other states across the country have already taken action, but we’re still waiting on Massachusetts.

As we face looming cuts already due to Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, we can’t afford even more cuts to health care, food assistance, education, and other essential public services.

Can you write to your state legislators today?

Letter: Mayor renews push to ease homeowners’ burden. Will Senate budge?

Jonathan Cohn, “Letter: Mayor renews push to ease homeowners’ burden. Will Senate budge?,” Boston Globe, December 10, 2025.

“At the start of the new legislative session, the state Senate promised a new day for legislative transparency, and senators have stressed that affordability is a top issue for their agenda. But to this point the Senate’s approach to Mayor Michelle Wu’s home rule petition to temporarily shift the tax burden from homeowners to commercial properties has belied both promises (“Property taxes set to jump again: Wu sees another double-digit rise for homeowners,” Page A1, Dec. 4).

The Legislature approved a new, earlier deadline to report bills out of committee, and as a result of new rules, we get to see how legislators voted. But not in the case of Wu’s proposal. The Senate has not allowed the bill to even have a hearing, despite the requirement that committees hold hearings on every bill assigned to them.

Moreover, as Democrats across the country, including here, talk about affordability as a key goal, Wu’s proposal addresses exactly that. It asks the commercial sector to shoulder more of the tax burden than the city’s residents, who are facing high costs and are suffering from the disastrous economic policies of President Trump.

Boston residents are looking at the state Senate, especially vocal opponents of the proposal such as Senator Nick Collins, and asking: Whose side are you on?”

PM in the News: Do Millionaire Surtaxes Lead to Millionaire Exodus?

Richard Solomon, “Do Millionaire Surtaxes Lead to Millionaire Exodus?,” People’s Policy Project, November 17, 2025.

“On a political level, passing Fair Share was a Herculean effort that squeaked by at 52% yes-vote, even in deep-blue Massachusetts. This might present a challenge for those seeking to replicate the strategy elsewhere. I spoke with Jonathan Cohn, policy director at Progressive Mass, as well as Enid Eckstein who served on the steering committee for the organization Raise Up that led the fight for Fair Share. According to them, Raise Up created a winning coalition for the amendment, backed by service worker, building, and teacher unions, even the AFL-CIO. The campaign survived a Supreme Court objection by finding a runaround through constitutional convention. Raise Up came out early on TV ads, canvassed nearly a million doors, and had disciplined messaging on earmarking funds and the home-selling issue.”

The wealthy were caught off guard by the amendment’s passage. Cohn told me that right-wing interests, having realized that repealing the millionaire surtax is a losing battle, are now collecting signatures to reduce state income taxes as a whole. According to Eckstein, the task ahead is not just staving off relapse to a more regressive tax structure but extending progressive gains to a corporate fair share tax on excess profits concealed offshore. Finally, as the People’s Policy Project has argued, further inroads against inequality and poverty will require plans to socialize capital income and fund generous welfare states.

Take Action: When It Rains, You Use the Rainy Day Fund ☔☔☔

It’s raining! Federal budget cuts are already devastating Massachusetts families, and the worst is yet to come.

This month, more than 1 million Massachusetts residents — overwhelmingly children, seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans — have faced hunger and fear because of the Trump Administration’s cruel attacks on SNAP benefits during the federal shutdown. More than 337,000 residents are facing skyrocketing health insurance costs due to the loss of federal subsidies beginning in January.

And that’s just the start. Up to 350,000 people in Massachusetts risk losing their Medicaid coverage, and up to 104,000 risk losing access to SNAP food assistance altogether, due to massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in the OBBA tax bill passed this summer. Federal cuts to PreK-12 schools, colleges, and childcare could hurt more than 1 million students. And Massachusetts is set to lose as much as $3.5 billion in annual federal aid once cuts to Medicaid and SNAP are fully phased in — blowing a massive hole in the state budget.

Cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and education threaten all of us, but we are not helpless. We need Beacon Hill to prioritize the people of Massachusetts over multinational corporations’ profits and prevent the worst of these devastating budget cuts.

Join Raise Up this week to take action:

  ☔ RAINY DAY ACTION ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH: Please join the Raise Up Massachusetts Coalition for a rally where we ask state legislators to use just 15% (~$1.2B) of the state’s reserve fund (a.k.a. the ‘Rainy Day Fund’) to offset devastating federal cuts to SNAP, education, and healthcare. RSVP HERE PLEASE.

PHONE BANK ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH: Can’t join us on Thursday in person? We got you covered! Join us to for a phone bank to help drive calls and emails to legislators to pass Corporate Fair Share and use the Rainy Day Fund! RSVP HERE PLEASE.

CLICK TO EMAIL ACTION TO LEGISLATORS: Got some extra time before and after the Thursday actions? Take 2 minutes to email the Governor and your legislators in support of Corporate Fair Share and using the Rainy Day fund here. In solidarity,