Commonwelth has low business taxes and poor business environment

While the title of this post may seem contradictory, low business tax and a poor environment is what two recent studies found when looking at the tax structure in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (Mass Budget) has this report on business taxes in the Commonwealth. The finding was that our state, with a rate at 4%, ranked 43rd among all states in business tax.
(more after the jump)

However, the myriad of tax breaks and exemptions in our code lead another study to conclude that the business environment is not that good, ranking 35th among all states. The Mass Budget report says,

"While business taxes in Massachusetts are low, the state’s tax system does not meet these criteria for a good tax system. The Massachusetts corporate tax system includes numerous special tax breaks for specific industries, such as mutual funds, manufacturing, and the motion picture industry."

The tax breaks given to industries is called the tax expenditure budget and amounts to some $6 billion. While many of the tax breaks would be readily accepted by residents as a good way to attract and business investment in the state, there are those that are questionable. One of those that I find a bit troubling is the movie industry subsidy. I think that most of the jobs created by that subsidy are temporary and the amount being provided is excessive.
For that reason, I support the Governor's proposal to cap the total subsidy at $50 milion. It appears that the legislature not go along with that.
This link is an opinion in support of that
And this one is in opposition to the cap.
I find Representative Steve D'Amico's arguments at this link to be sound and compelling.