Seal of Massachusetts Massachusetts

Massachusetts has a statutory tax limit under MA General Laws Title IX Chapter 62F. in 1986, voters passed an initiative limiting state tax revenue to the growth of state wages and salaries, and any excess had to be refunded to taxpayers. This statute limits the growth of state tax revenues but does not apply to expenditures. This limit does apply to local governments as well so that the state cannot just push government programs onto local government budgets. Because this limit is statutory, the legislature can override the limit by a simple majority vote. Some stricter growth limitations were added in 2002, but these never took effect and were removed in 2012.

 
The base year represents the year the hypothetical Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) would have been enacted. Selecting a base year changes how the state’s TABOR is calculated because the annual growth rates of inflation and population change depending on when TABOR is enacted.
  • Year Inflation-adjusted Actual Spending
    1992 21,539,960,000
    1993 22,682,520,000
    1994 23,412,200,000
    1995 25,037,600,000
    1996 25,541,670,000
    1997 27,574,470,000
    1998 27,728,170,000
    1999 28,988,150,000
    2000 33,085,000,000
    2001 36,426,130,000
    2002 32,220,430,000
    2003 30,742,230,000
    2004 27,610,980,000
    2005 42,586,600,000
    2006 46,992,640,000
    2007 49,032,250,000
    2008 49,537,320,000
    2009 52,125,090,000
    2010 46,168,910,000
    2011 48,859,480,000
    2012 46,279,150,000
    2013 51,677,570,000
    2014 52,759,890,000
    2015 52,685,150,000
    2016 45,584,640,000
    2017 43,910,500,000
    2018 43,972,550,000
    2019 45,420,000,000
    2020 47,081,500,000
*All spending figures are in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars.