{"id":78719,"date":"2026-02-06T14:04:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tech.einnews.com\/article\/890038060"},"modified":"2026-02-06T14:04:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:04:48","slug":"mass-high-tech-council-is-losing-higher-ed-members-amid-its-income-tax-rollback-push-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/mass-high-tech-council-is-losing-higher-ed-members-amid-its-income-tax-rollback-push-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass. High Tech Council is losing higher-ed members amid its income tax rollback push. Why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some blame the council\u2019s tax-cut advocacy as ballot question looms<\/h2>\n
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\"UMass
UMass Lowell Chancellor Julie Chen during a roundtable discussion in 2023.<\/span>Craig F. Walker\/Globe Staff<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The Mass. High Technology Council\u2019s crusade<\/a> to lower the state income tax seems to be popular<\/a> with voters. But not so much with a subset of the influential business group\u2019s members.<\/span><\/p>\n

Voting with their feet, several have left or not renewed memberships in recent weeks, blaming the group\u2019s key role behind a ballot question to reduce the income tax<\/a> to 4 percent from 5 percent. Those departures are primarily among higher-ed members: Bunker Hill Community College, Bridgewater State University, UMass Lowell <\/b>(all state-funded institutions). Lobbyist Joe Boncore also did not reup for his firm, Commonwealth Counsel, for the same reason.<\/span><\/p>\n

Others have left, but with different explanations. Northeastern University said it no longer saw the need after a statewide coalition<\/a> serving the defense sector was launched last year, for example. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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UMass Boston says it left after chancellor Marcelo S\u00e1urez-Orozco stepped down from the board in June. Likewise, WPI said it departed after president Grace Wang stepped down from the tech council board due to competing leadership commitments.<\/span><\/p>\n

Massport is also gone, but declined to say why. Then there\u2019s Wentworth Institute of Technology, which says its nonrenewal was due to a clerical error, and it has since reupped. <\/span><\/p>\n

Working behind the scenes is Mass. High Tech\u2019s archenemy: Raise Up Massachusetts. People affiliated with the progressive, union-backed coalition urged many council members to rethink their status with the business group because of the pending tax cut. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mass. High Tech took the lead<\/a> for the business community a decade ago in a legal fight to block Raise Up\u2019s millionaires tax proposal. <\/b>Ultimately, Raise Up succeeded, and won over voters statewide in 2022. Since then, Mass. High Tech president Chris Anderson and his allies have been trying to offset the impact. They started the Mass Opportunity Alliance<\/a>, a new business coalition that doesn\u2019t disclose its donors, in part to pursue this latest tax ballot question<\/a> along with one that would cap state government spending. <\/span><\/p>\n

Financially, this battle is being waged through campaign committees, like all political campaigns. But Raise Up and Mass High Tech are the biggest players behind each side.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anderson declined to talk about the defections, saying he doesn\u2019t comment on membership dynamics. And it\u2019s hard to imagine the bulk of his members, including many of Greater Boston\u2019s biggest tech and financial firms, complaining about Anderson\u2019s anti-tax efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

UMass Lowell chancellor Julie Chen says they should. Cut funding for higher ed, she says, and you cut into the quality of talent you can recruit here. Chen and Pam Eddinger, president of Bunker Hill Community College, sent a letter to Anderson in December, asking him to reconsider before they bailed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Higher ed funding is supported, to some extent, by the millionaires tax. Eddinger, though, notes that the budget impacts go far beyond direct subsidies for public colleges. If the safety net for low-income residents gets weakened, she says, fewer would have the luxury of time to study in the first place. Plus, she says, the state\u2019s workforce development programs could take a hit.<\/span><\/p>\n

How much money are we talking about? The state income tax brought in more than $26 billion <\/a>last year. Cut that by 20 percent, and you get around $5 billion in cuts \u2014 something Bridgewater president Fred Clark says would be a \u201cbody blow\u201d to the state budget. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mass. High Tech argues that blow will be mitigated by more economic growth spurred by the tax cut, while making the state more competitive for business and more affordable for residents \u2014 arguably the two biggest economic challenges facing the state today. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike Bunker Hill and Bridgewater, UMass Lowell has been a longtime tech council member. The group\u2019s low-tax agenda is no secret, but the ballot questions go too far for Chen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her school has long been a feeder system for the tech companies that ring the northern suburbs along Route 128 and Interstate 495, with help from connections made through the council. Chen says UMass Lowell will have to work a little harder to maintain those ties now. <\/span><\/p>\n

While business associations aren\u2019t always going to agree, she adds, when it seems like a group\u2019s primary focus could harm the organization you represent, it\u2019s hard to justify sticking around.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @jonchesto<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… there\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Wentworth Institute of Technology<\/span>, which says its nonrenewal was … the scenes is Mass. High Tech<\/span>\u00e2\u0080\u0099s archenemy: Raise Up … . Since then, Mass. High Tech<\/span> president Chris Anderson and his … of Greater Boston\u00e2\u0080\u0099s biggest tech<\/span> and financial firms, complaining …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}