Overall, the level of taxation in Massachusetts is very close to the national average. Total state and local taxes paid in Massachusetts as a share of total personal income was 10.4 percent in FY 2015 (the most recent year for which national data is available). That places Massachusetts at about the U.S. average of 10.3 percent (see chart below).¹ Taxes, of course, are the primary way that the people of a state fund education, transportation, public safety, safety net protections, and other public services. With taxes in Massachusetts about the US average, why do we sometimes hear the name "Taxachusetts" applied to our state?  The answer has to do with history rather than current reality.

The Taxachusetts label is a legacy of the 1970s--and at that time the label had a basis in reality.  In FY 1977, Massachusetts was a relatively high-tax state, as the chart below shows.  In fact, taxes as a share of income were higher in Massachusetts at that point than in all but two other states.

Since the late 1970s, tax policy in the Commonwealth has changed dramatically.  The approval of Proposition 2 1/2 in 1980 reduced property taxes, and then, particularly in the late 1990s, the Commonwealth reduced state taxes—primarily the income tax—significantly.² As a result, between 1977 and 2015, Massachusetts reduced taxes more than all but one other state, as the following figure shows.

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