Pioneer Institute

NEW: MassWatch IRS Data Discovery Tool

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If you want a window into taxation, to learn where Massachusetts residents move to and where new residents are coming from, Pioneer Institute has an innovative research tool for you. With Pioneer’s new Mass IRS Data Discovery Tool, you can now compare state-to-state or year-to-year tax data without downloading up to 2,000 IRS files in many different, cumbersome formats.

Since the early 1990s, the IRS has posted spreadsheets on its website that document aggregated and anonymized 1040 tax returns, including taxpayer migration and individual income tax data. Pioneer’s new IRS Data Discovery Tool has uploaded all of these files to a single database, ensuring consistency of format, and has connected the data to user-friendly applications for easy analysis and visualization.

The individual tax statistics show selected income and tax items classified by county, ZIP code and income bracket. The data are from the IRS’s Individual Master File, which includes a record of every Form 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, 1040PC, 1040 NR and 8814 filed with the IRS. Additionally, our site allows you to research Massachusetts migration trends by county, both interstate and intrastate.

Migration data for the United States are based on year-to-year address changes reported on individual income tax returns filed with the IRS. They present migration patterns by state or by county for the entire United States and are available for inflows—the number of new residents who moved to a state or county and where they migrated from, and outflows—the number of residents leaving a state or county and where they went. The data are available for Filing Years 1993 through 2019 and include:

  • Number of returns filed, which approximates the number of households that migrated
  • Number of personal exemptions claimed, which approximates the number of individuals
  • Total adjusted gross income, starting with Filing Year 1995
  • Aggregate migration flows at the State level, by the size of adjusted gross income (AGI) and age of the primary taxpayer, starting with Filing Year 2011.

The IRS Data Discovery Tool is the latest offering from MassWatch, Pioneer’s suite of free data resources that promote citizen engagement in state and local government. It is near impossible to maintain a healthy democracy without public access key information. The free websites that make up MassWatch provide access to vast amounts of data with user-friendly queries to foster public particiaption in government.

Analysis from Pioneer’s Transparency Team:

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During the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) payroll data presented a 29.09% increase in the average employee’s overtime pay from the previous year. Pioneer wanted to dig deeper into the Department’s compensation trends to put the $5M bump in 2020 DPH overtime pay into perspective.

Struggling For Sunshine: Transparency’s Power To Keep Leaders Accountable

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Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's Mary Z. Connaughton about the value of transparency and Pioneer’s extensive work to provide greater access to legislative and policy information to hold elected officials accountable and build trust in our state government. Read Pioneer Institute's Sunshine Week Transparency Resolutions.

Pioneer Institute’s 2021 Government Transparency Resolutions: Sunshine Week Edition

As it does each year, Pioneer shares the resolutions it hopes state leaders will adopt to bring government actions into better focus and invigorate our democracy with heightened public engagement. As the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis noted, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

COVID-19 Transparency – A Step Backwards

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Massachusetts has unfortunately taken the backwards step of ending its longstanding daily reporting of something basic and important: the virus’s cumulative impact on various age groups.

HHS COVID Funding Tracker

As of July, the Feds have distributed $86.7 billion to medical providers, of which $2.3 billion came to Massachusetts. Pioneer’s new HHS COVID-19 Funding app shows who and how much, from the $1 sent to American Current Care of Massachusetts, to the $418,034,675 sent to the MA Department of Public Health. We also break down the distribution by city or town.

Mapping COVID-19 in Massachusetts Cities & Towns

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Kudos to he Massachusetts Department of Public Health for posting the count and rate (per 100,000) of confirmed COVID-19 Cases in Massachusetts by City/Town.

 

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