Dean Serpa and Scott Conway of Gov. Charlie Baker's office spent time Friday preparing for the arrival Sunday of New England governors and Eastern Canadian premiers. Massachusetts is hosting this year's conference for the northeast state and province leaders. Private events are planned Sunday at the State House – including a formal ceremony on the front steps and a dinner featuring locally-produced food and drink – followed by public events Monday at the Hynes Convention Center.
When the Department of Revenue emphasized in early August that state tax collections in July exceeded benchmarks it did not mention that the monthly benchmark had been lowered.
Gov. Charlie Baker and Democratic legislative leaders spent the spring ripping up and rewriting budget plans because tax collections month after month fell short of their expectations. For budget-writing purposes, they marked down their estimate of fiscal 2017 tax collections by $630 million.
