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Republicans in New Hampshire gathered last week to tip their hat – sort of – to Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) in gratitude for her anti-business tax policies that they say have ultimately sent small businesses over the border into the friendlier Granite State.
“It’s a creative way of actually being respectful and saying thank you, because there’s no amount of marketing dollars that could push these businesses over the border,” Rep. Brian Labrie, chair of the New Hampshire House Small Business Coalition, told State House News Service in advance of a press conference. “We have a lot less of a budget than you do here in Massachusetts.”
According to the News Service report, Labrie, Deputy House Majority Leader Joseph Sweeney, and Housing Committee Chair Rep. Joe Alexander, joined with conservative think tank Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance about the “growing economic divide” between the two New England states.
“When we see headlines like Analogic or SynQor moving their operations to the state of New Hampshire, it’s not luck,” Sweeney explained. “It’s not a coincidence. It’s the result of over the last decade, New Hampshire Republicans have done everything that we can to lower our business taxes, lower taxes in the state, say no to the new taxes that Democrats have proposed in New Hampshire, like an income tax.”
“We’ll always say no to a sales tax, we’ve said no to a capital gains tax, we’ve made sure that we phased out our interest and dividends tax,” he added.
According to the Tax Foundation’s 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index, Massachusetts is among the 10 “lowest-ranked, or worst, states” in terms of overall tax competitiveness, ranking eighth from the bottom slot – which is occupied by New York. The Bay State, nevertheless, still fares better than neighboring Connecticut, which ranks fourth from dead last, following California, New Jersey, and New York.
“The states in the bottom 10 tend to have a number of issues in common: complex, nonneutral taxes with comparatively high rates,” the Tax Foundation’s executive summary explains, adding that the Bay State’s dismal performance on the Index is “due to its overly burdensome individual income taxes, property taxes, and UI [unemployment insurance] taxes.”
“In addition to its hefty income tax burdens, especially for businesses, Massachusetts’ property taxes are among the highest in the nation,” the Index notes.
New Hampshire, on the other hand, occupies the third slot from the top in the list of “10 best states” in the 2026 Index, following Wyoming and South Dakota.
“The absence of a major tax is a common factor among many of the top 10 states,” the Index explains, noting that both “Alaska and New Hampshire have no individual income or state-level sales tax.”
“Like other states that forgo one or more major taxes, New Hampshire’s lack of an individual income tax or sales tax yields an extremely competitive overall ranking despite relatively lower rankings on the corporate income tax and property tax components,” the Tax Foundation points out the state’s pros and cons. “New Hampshire joined the ranks of the individual income tax-free states when its interest and dividends (I&D) tax was phased out in January 2025, further solidifying the state’s competitive standing.”
But Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Director Paul Diego Craney told the News Service that there is actually no competition between New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
“New Hampshire is competing with Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee,” he asserted.
The News Service reports that electronics manufacturer SynQor announced in December it would relocate its operations to Salem, New Hampshire in the new year. Additionally, medical and airport security manufacturer Analogic Corp. – currently based in Peabody – announced its headquarters would also move to Salem.
Nevertheless, several businesses have recently announced operations moves from other New England states to Boston, the News Service also reports, including Hasbro, from Rhode Island, and The LEGO Group, from Connecticut.
When asked about the Granite State GOP’s message that businesses prefer their friendlier tax climate to the high taxes in Massachusetts, Healey reportedly said that while she grew up in and “loves” New Hampshire, she’s “glad” she lives in Massachusetts.
“Massachusetts is a state that leads in education, innovation and health care,” the Democrat claimed, according to the News Service. “Our economy is about eight times the size of New Hampshire’s. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people are actually leaving New Hampshire to come work for companies and jobs in Massachusetts, because Massachusetts, at the end of the day, provides the economic engine to New Hampshire.”
Earlier this month, however, the Boston Herald featured a story about SynQor’s move, noting Healey’s purposeful efforts to keep businesses within its boundaries.
New Hampshire Republican Sweeney reportedly described Healey’s verbal response as “a myth.”
“Massachusetts Democrats and even New Hampshire Democrats like to push that New Hampshire is somehow dependent on the state of Massachusetts,” he said, adding that “[n]othing can be further from the truth.”
“In metric after metric, New Hampshire outranks Massachusetts when it comes to quality of life, safety, education levels, our ability just to live our lives where we want to, without the state getting in the way and telling us how to do certain things,” Sweeney asserted.
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