Are you in favor of an income surtax on millionaires?
Some form of that question will most likely be on the November 2022 ballot in Massachusetts.
On Tuesday afternoon, members of the Massachusetts Legislature voted 159-41 in favor of sending the Fair Share Amendment to the ballot.
The Fair Share Amendment would amend the Massachusetts constitution to add a new income tax bracket. The state has a flat 5 percent income tax rate on individuals regardless of earnings. However, the Fair Share Amendment would increase the marginal income tax rate on income earned above $1 million from 5 percent to 9 percent — an 80 percent increase.
The move earned praise from the left-leaning Raise Up Massachusetts and criticism from the right-leaning Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
Raise Up Massachusetts projects that the measure would raise $2 billion per year in additional revenue for the state.
“We applaud the state Legislature for voting to place the Fair Share Amendment on the ballot, and for giving the people of Massachusetts the opportunity to vote on this vitally important proposal,” Raise Uo Massachusetts said in a written statement immediately after the legislature voted to approve it.
Meanwhile, MassFiscal spokesman Paul Craney voiced his opposition. In a statement, he said that revenue isn’t a problem for the state right now and that raising taxes will hurt everyone — not just the wealthy:
Only Beacon Hill politicians want to raise taxes by 80 percent, while simultaneously collecting more tax revenue than they know how to spend. The voters should not forget or forgive this level of greed and they will have another chance to hold them accountable in 2022.
Senate President Karen Spilka and Speaker Ron Mariano have repeatedly been exposed as the country’s most opaque state legislative body and now they are also the greediest. They will use today as a rallying cry to raise taxes on the rich and if they are successful, they will make sure we are all considered rich when the taxes are due.
The middle class and working families will be the key constituency that will ultimately reject this proposal. Massachusetts’s middle class and working families have the most to lose under this tax hike proposal. While lawmakers want the public to think it’s a tax hike only for the rich, the state’s most affluent will quickly flee while the middle class and working families will be left to cover the bill. As more middle class and working families realize this is an attempt to tax them next, this will eventually fail for the seventh time and be a victory that all taxpayers can relish.
One state that neighbors Massachusetts, New Hampshire, has no income tax at all.
The question could avoid the ballot if state lawmakers were to etch out a deal with Governor Charlie Baker to a 9 percent millionaire’s tax. However, Baker has previously stated that he opposes the idea.
The last time an income tax question was on a statewide ballot in Massachusetts was 2000 — and the state voted to lower income taxes. The Bay State voted 59.4 percent to 40.6 percent to gradually lower the state income tax from 5.9 percent to 5.0 percent, which has since happened.
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