A group of migrants standing outside of the Cove Fine Arts Center at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy. The Cove Fine Arts Center is currently being used as a migrant overflow shelter. Photo by Tom Joyce
Bad news, everyone: state and federal income tax returns in Massachusetts are due on Wednesday, April 17.
However, this time provides liberals of the Commonwealth a great opportunity to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to the state’s migrant crisis — and they should take it.
Our state allows taxpayers to pay an optional, a higher-than-required 5.85 percent state tax rate, instead of the regular 5 percent rate, on the first $1 million in income they earn. The optional higher rate is an idea the now-defunct Citizens for Limited Taxation helped push into law in 2002. The thinking: because 41 percent of voters voted No on a ballot question that gradually lowered the state’s income tax rate from 5.9 percent to 5 percent, it only made sense that the people who wanted to keep paying the higher optional rate could keep paying it.
The state faces financial problems thanks to the migrant crisis. We have people coming from all over the world, though primarily Haiti, to capitalize on the state’s right-to-shelter law. It means that we’re putting migrants, including illegal immigrants, up at hotels and motels on the taxpayers’ dime and incurring far-greater-than-expected costs.
The state initially budgeted $325 million for its emergency shelter system for fiscal year 2024. However, it’s on pace to now spend more than $900 million — a cost that contributed to budget shortfalls so bad that Governor Maura Healey enacted $375 million in emergency budget cuts in January; her cuts hit over more than fire departments statewide.
While the state plans to tap into its transitional escrow fund to fund the shelter system in fiscal year 2025 — as Democratic lawmakers refuse to put a residency requirement on the state’s right-to-shelter law — House Speaker Ron Mariano (D-Quincy) has hinted that budget cuts are on the table in fiscal year 2026 to fund the system.
So, if you’re a liberal who supports our state’s bloated spending, including putting illegal immigrants up at hotels, giving them a bunch of free stuff, and paying $64 per day to feed them, please consider paying a little bit extra in state income taxes this year to show how much you really care about the migrants.
Liberals might say that the state should just tax the rich more to pay for it. However, we already raised the state income tax on income of more than $1 million from 5 percent to 9 percent at the ballot box in 2022, so they’re already paying a lot more in state income taxes — and the state still has financial problems.
Now it’s time for liberals to do their part. They must send more money to Beacon Hill to fund the mess they voted for.
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A group of migrants standing outside of the Cove Fine Arts Center at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy. The Cove Fine Arts Center is currently being used as a migrant overflow shelter. Photo by Tom Joyce 
