By Kathryn Carley, February 23, 2026
Union leaders in Massachusetts are urging state lawmakers to reject the adoption of corporate tax cuts included in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
The state already faces a more than $3 billion reduction in federal aid and could lose more than $600 million in corporate taxes this year alone.
Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Unions, said the money would be better spent on working families.
“Not only does that have impact on the ability of state and local governments to pursue construction projects at the state and municipal level, where our members work but it also raises the costs for health insurance,” Callahan noted.
Gov. Maura Healy has proposed a phased-in adoption of the tax cuts but union leaders said it still does not protect state revenue. In their view, multinational corporations like Amazon, McDonald’s and Walmart should pay their fair share.
Many of the federal tax changes will enter the Massachusetts tax code automatically, unless state lawmakers opt out. Experts with MassBudget said detaching the state tax code from specific provisions in the federal code is common practice and would help the state make up for cuts to public safety-net programs.
Callahan argued new retroactive tax breaks will not incentivize corporations to invest in Massachusetts.
“If they invest in other parts of the country, whether in infrastructure or in their workforce, we would have to give them a tax break,” Callahan pointed out. “That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
An estimated 350,000 people in the state could also lose their health care and food assistance over the next two years due to massive cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. Federal cuts to education will affect more than 1 million students.
Callahan stressed tax breaks for billionaires do not help the working families struggling to get by, including the 75,000 construction workers he represents.
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