Chamber News

Senate President Karen Spilka said Thursday she is not planning to raise taxes this session but left open the possibility of increases if the pandemic persists and worsens. The $45.6 billion budget Gov. Charlie Baker filed for fiscal year 2022 cuts overall state spending and does not include new taxes on individuals. House Speaker Ronald…

State House News – Top legislative Democrats announced Monday they’d reached a deal on a COVID-19 recovery bill that aims to help workers and employers. The deal includes tax relief for certain unemployed workers, paid leave related to COVID-19 and vaccinations, relief from planned hikes in unemployment insurance rates, and waiving state taxes on Paycheck…

On Saturday, March 6, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the Coronavirus Relief Bill.  The bill now goes back to the House, where a vote is expected on Tuesday. It is expected to pass and head to the President this week. The total amount of the stimulus is $1.9 trillion made up of the following: Stimulus…

AIM – Massachusetts legislative leaders today announced an agreement that will avert a 60 percent Unemployment Insurance rate increase while guaranteeing paid leave to employees who are unable to work because they get infected with the coronavirus, are ordered to quarantine, or need to take time off to get the vaccine. The agreement will freeze…

Important training opportunity for Schedule C filers – Sole Proprietorships, Independent Contractors, Self employed and Single Member LLC’s.  SIGN UP FOR EITHER OF THE TWO SESSIONS THIS WEEK: 1. Tuesday, March 9th at 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM 2. Thursday, March 11th at 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM We will be discussing the new PPP…

Boston Business Journal – Years of discussion and numerous state studies finally brought about the potential for lasting change for two thorny health care issues that had been plaguing the state when Gov. Charlie Baker signed a bill last month: behavioral health care and surprise billing. Yet that progress — largely spurred by the pandemic —…

NBC Boston – Massachusetts has now confirmed more than 550,000 coronavirus cases after reporting 1,428 new cases of the virus on Sunday, along with 52 more deaths. The grim milestone comes a little over a year after the first coronavirus case was reported in the Bay State. There have now been totals of 550,302 confirmed cases…

Boston Herald – With the floodgates set to open on another round of unemployment aid, states are being hammered with a new wave of fraud as they scramble to update security systems and block scammers who already have siphoned billions of dollars from pandemic-related jobless programs. The fraud is fleecing taxpayers, delaying legitimate payments and turning…

MassLive – A Massachusetts urgent care company that administered thousands of first doses of the coronavirus vaccine canceled appointments for individuals’ second shot, noting the state cut off its supply. CareWell Urgent Care, a Quincy-based company, vaccinated more than 6,000 people at 16 clinics across Massachusetts but has been canceling appointments for an undisclosed number of patients’ second…