Budget Amendment ID: FY2023-S4-292

ECO 292

The People’s Gas Price Relief Program

Ms. Rausch and Messrs. Moore and O'Connor moved that the proposed new text be amended in section 2, in item 1201-0100, by inserting the following words:- "provided further, that the department shall expend not more than $500,000,000 to implement the gas price relief program set forth in section XX"; and

by striking out the figure “$89,107,556” and inserting in place thereof the following:- $589,107,556; and

by adding the following section:-

SECTION XX. (a) Not later than July 31, 2022, the department of revenue shall issue a debit card preloaded with a value of $200 to each resident of the commonwealth who owns or leases a non-commercial fossil-fuel-powered vehicle that is registered to an address in the commonwealth and who: (i) timely filed personal state tax returns for the year 2021 reporting adjusted gross income of $125,000 or less, if filing individually, or $250,000 or less, if filing jointly; (ii) receives benefits administered, managed, or otherwise issued by the department of transitional assistance; or (iii) is a beneficiary or enrollee of MassHealth. The department shall consult with the registry of motor vehicles, the department of transitional assistance, and the executive office of health and human services, as applicable, to generate a list of eligible individuals. No individual shall be eligible to receive more than one debit card.

(b) To offset the cost of the gas price relief program described in paragraph (a), a one-time excise tax is hereby imposed on any windfall profit earned during the period of January 1 to June 30, 2022, inclusive, by a corporation or unitary group of corporations subject to taxation under chapter 63 of the General Laws that engages in the extraction, processing, refinement, sale, or transport of crude oil as a substantial portion of its business. For purposes of this section, the term “windfall profit” shall mean the Massachusetts share of a business entity’s quarterly net profits, as reported to shareholders, in excess of $1,000,000, calculated by application of the entity’s Massachusetts apportionment factor for the most recently available tax year to said quarterly net profits. The total amount of tax imposed pursuant to this section shall be the total cost to create and implement the gas price relief program described in paragraph (a), inclusive of attendant administrative costs, which administrative costs shall not exceed 10 per cent of the total value of the debit cards issued, exclusive of postage. The department of revenue shall calculate the specific tax amounts to be paid by each business entity that earned a windfall profit as defined herein; provided, however, that such tax amounts shall be proportional to the amounts of such windfall profits earned by all qualifying business entities. In no event shall the tax rate pursuant to this section exceed 9.5 per cent. Taxes owed pursuant to this paragraph shall be due in full not later than October 31, 2022.

(c) No business entity owing a tax pursuant to this section shall pass through the cost of such tax to consumers.

(d) Not later than November 30, 2022, the department of revenue shall file a report detailing the activities and collections set forth in this section with the clerks of the senate and the house of representatives, the senate and house committees on ways and means, and the joint committees on the environment, natural resources and agriculture; revenue; telecommunications, utilities and energy; and transportation. The department shall publish the report on its website, exclusive of any confidential or proprietary business information.

(e) The department of revenue may promulgate regulations to implement this section, including without limitation advancing the due date established in paragraph (b).