Amendment #663 to H3400

Tax Expenditure Freeze

[Sponsors] Representatives Hecht of Watertown, Rushing of Boston, Sciortino of Medford, Lewis of Winchester, Provost of Somerville, Wolf of Cambridge, Smizik of Brookline, Andrews of Orange, Kocot of Northampton and Balser of Newton move that the bill be amended after section 36 by inserting the following:

Section XX.

The dollar amount in Fiscal Year 2012 of all tax expenditures, as defined in Section 1 of Chapter 29 of the General Laws, shall not exceed $23.172 billion.  Any funds that accrue to the commonwealth as a result of the limitation on tax expenditures established by this section shall be deposited into the Commonwealth Stabilization Fund.

There shall be established a special commission comprised of the State Auditor or designee, State Treasurer or designee, the Secretary of Administration and Finance or designee, the Speaker of the House or designee, the Senate President or designee, the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee or designee, the Chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee or designee, the House and Senate chairs of the Joint Committee on Revenue or their respective designees, the House minority leader or designee, and the Senate minority leader or designee.

Said special commission shall hold at least one public hearing and shall issue a report by September 1, 2011 assessing the impact of this section on the individual line-items contained in the annual tax expenditure estimate required by Section 5B of Chapter 29 of the General Laws and filed by the Governor on January 26, 2011 and shall file with the Clerk of the House any additional legislation that may be necessary to implement the limitation on tax expenditures established by this section.