Amendment #670 to H3400

Tax Expenditure Commission

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

Section XX.

Section 1.  Notwithstanding any general law to the contrary, there shall established a special commission that shall review and evaluate tax expenditures, as defined in Section 1 of Chapter 29 of the General Laws, and make recommendations to the General  Court on the effectiveness, timeliness, and cost benefit of said tax expenditures.  The commission shall file a report with the General Court by December 1, 2011.  The report shall include, but not be limited to, the public policy objectives behind said tax expenditures, the metrics for measuring success in meeting those objectives, and the need for additional reporting, sunset, or clawback provisions.  The commission shall make recommendations regarding tax expenditures that should be repealed or modified.  The commission shall also make recommendations regarding ongoing evaluation of tax expenditures and criteria for evaluating proposals for new tax expenditures.

The commission shall be 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.

Section 2.   No new tax expenditures shall be created prior to the filing of the report required by Section 1 of this section.