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GOP State Auditor Candidate Anthony Amore Launches Pro-Referendum-Tax-Cut Petition for Massachusetts

August 7, 2022

Massachusetts Republican audtor candidate Anthony Amore released the names of 24 state taxpayers who plan to sign a petition with the state’s highest court if state auditor Suzanne Bump does not certify billions in tax rebates under the state’s Chapter 62F law. 

“I’ve called on the revenue commissioner and Auditor Bump to move heaven and earth to get tax rebate checks in the hands of residents who are battling high costs for everything from gas to groceries,” Amore said in a press release on Friday, August 5. “I’m glad to see Attorney General Maura Healey call these tax rebates an absolute necessity, which is why I’m challenging my Democratic opponents in this race to join me in calling for immediate tax relief. Now more than ever, we need an independent Auditor who will look out for taxpayers, and I promise to be that official if elected.”

The list included 24 signees, primarily Republicans.

State taxpayers are in line for a roughly 7 percent rebate or credit on state income taxes they paid for 2021. That’s because of a state law approved by voters in 1986 that limits the amount of tax revenue the state can take in if wages and salaries don’t keep pace.

That law, known as Chapter 62F, took state legislators by surprise when it resurfaced in late July, after 35 years of not being a factor in state budgeting.

Supporters of the law say it guarantees taxpayers in Massachusetts a much-needed tax cut that voters approved years ago.

Critics of the law argue that it’s wasteful. They say it’s regressive and that the overwhelming majority of the benefits go to the ultrawealthy — and that those people don’t need a new tax cut. 

That includes state representative Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge), a self-identified democratic socialist.

“The ‘F’ in Chapter 62F stands for ‘F the working class,’ ” Connolly tweeted last week. “Seriously, this law was passed by the same Mass. voters who elected Ronald Reagan in ‘84. I support an approach to 62F that prioritizes relief for the working poor + middle class, without sending new benefits to the rich.”

Amore is trying to become the first Republican elected state auditor since Russell Abner Wood in 1938.

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