by Jon Hurst, President & CEO

There’s no escaping the message in the press, in political campaigns, and in consumer spending: costs are high and affordability continues to weigh on both our residents and our employers.  Who is to blame depends on the particular costs, as well as who you ask. The solutions depend on the willingness of elected officials to do anything meaningful about the problems.

Families and small businesses have incomes coming from paychecks or sales, with a variety of costs ranging from necessary to discretionary.  The problem facing too many families and too many small businesses that serve them is that monthly income or sales growth haven’t kept up with monthly costs of living or costs of doing business.  Monthly taxes; mortgage or rent payments; groceries for families; inventory for sellers; health insurance premiums; heating and cooling bills; and other bills which must be paid, increasingly leave little or nothing for discretionary spending or savings at the end of the month. Most families and small businesses can withstand the higher costs versus flat income mismatch for a period of months, or even years, but not forever.    

That imbalance ultimately results in families leaving the state and small businesses closing their doors.  The domestic outmigration from Massachusetts as reported by the US Census for last year was 33,000, continuing a troubling multi-year trend.  Also, small businesses closing their doors continues six years after the damaging COVID restrictions and messaging.     

It is extremely important in 2026 that our elected officials at the local, state and national levels all take a good look in the mirror to determine what they are doing right, and what they are doing wrong on the cost of living and the cost of doing business.

On Capitol Hill last year, we saw a mixed bag of action affecting consumers, taxpayers and small businesses.  Important tax reforms for families and small businesses alike were welcomed and may benefit our local economy in the upcoming tax season.  Yet that positive action is balanced against the uncertainty and potential consumer costs of widespread tariffs.

On Beacon Hill, costs are a top talking point, yet introspection hasn’t been a strong suit on looking at those costs.   Too often much blame is pointed at others such as Washington for self-inflicted inflationary mandates.

The two obvious examples are health insurance premiums and utility bills.  On health insurance it is easy to point the fingers at insurers, but the reality is that unaffordable premiums come from two sources - high provider prices, and state mandated insurance benefits over and above what is required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Before you tackle the high-cost provider issues, state lawmakers must recognize that over the years they have passed nearly 60 state health insurance mandates, now accounting for up to 24% of premium costs.  For a small business family policy now costing $40,000 per year, that’s almost $10,000 of inflationary, unaffordable state mandates, with no ability for the premium payer to choose whether they want, need or can afford those costly coverages.

Similarly, in this very cold winter weather, it may be easy for politicians to point fingers at the local gas or electric utility.  But the facts are that state mandated assessments now add up to about a third of the monthly bill, with no right to choose for the consumer or small business owner of whether they want, need, will ever use, or can even afford those mandates, such as the MassSave program.

Our state elected officials claim affordability for our working families and our small businesses is truly a top priority.   Well, a good place to start in solving the affordability crisis would be to empower those actually paying the bills for those state healthcare and energy mandates to be able to choose whether they want to opt in or out of the costs, rather than having those decisions made for them by politicians. 

The next time you see your elected officials, tell them to take a good look in the mirror before giving them your vote.