#2021-4 February 5, 2021

January Tax Collections Surpasses Pre-Pandemic Receipts

January tax collections far exceeded the Baker administration’s expectations, coming in almost a half-billion dollars above the Department of Revenue's (DOR) already-upgraded monthly benchmark and helping to improve the state’s financial picture heading into a fresh round of budget deliberations.  DOR collected $3.347 billion last month, which is $392 million greater than January 2020 collections and $429 million higher than the department’s benchmark for the month.

January is the fourth-largest revenue month of the year for Massachusetts, and tax collections are usually approximately 10 percent of the annual total.  With five months left in FY2021, the state has collected $764 million more in taxes from people and businesses than it did during the same seven pre-pandemic months of fiscal year 2020.  The last month Massachusetts saw a year-over-year decline in tax collections was September.

If collections for February through May meet DOR’s benchmarks, the state will the last month of FY2021 having collected approximately $2.159 billion more than it had collected to that point of fiscal year 2020.  However, DOR expects to collect about $2.249 billion less in June than it did in June 2020, meaning the month (and therefore the fiscal year) would end with DOR having taken in $90 million less than it did through all of fiscal year 2020.

Virtual Credit for Life Fairs Seeking Member Bank Partnerships

For several years, many local high schools have partnered with local banks to offer personal financial literacy awareness through in-person Credit for Life fairs.  These half-day events allow students to assume the role of a 25-year-old adult, select their careers and spend their paychecks on everything they will need to live.  Students get to interact with dozens of adult volunteers, many of whom have special expertise in housing, transportation, health and wellness, nutrition as well as financial professionals.  The Covid-19 pandemic eliminated all those in-person fairs last spring and this academic year.

Fortunately, eight local banks that have long supported financial literacy in Massachusetts schools, along with FitMoney.org, a well-respected, Massachusetts-based non-profit dedicated to financial literacy for K-12 students, have formed a partnership to develop a rigorous virtual web-based credit for life fair that soon will be available to all schools across the Commonwealth.  The website development is in its final stages and will be beta tested by a group of educators and others during February, with a target implementation of mid-late March.

This highly interactive program can be easily implemented during normal school day activities or as part of an after-school program.  Given the widespread use of hybrid and remote learning platforms, the virtual credit for life program provides a most valuable and substantive addition to the practical skills students will need in their adult lives.

Banks that want more information about participating should contact either Mary Anne Clancy at Institution for Savings or Dave Floreen, former MBA Sr. VP at their provided information below:

Mary Anne Clancy, Sr. Vice President, Institution for Savings, Newburyport:
mclancy@institutionforsavings.com, 978-225-1324 

David Floreen, retired banker, member of development team:
dfloreen@verizon.net, 978-502-6933|