Arlington parents, educators, elected and community leaders plan to kick off a door-to-door canvass for the Fair Share Amendment at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 11, at the Gibbs School.
The amendment proposes a state tax on annual incomes above $1 million, which would raise billions of dollars to invest in transportation and public education.
Volunteers plan to gather at the Gibbs parking lot on Tufts Street for brief remarks from local campaign volunteers and elected officials, before heading off to canvass voters and talk about how the amendment would help improve public schools and colleges as well as roads, bridges and public transportation infrastructure.
Local politicians expected
Among those expected are state Sen. Cindy Friedman and state Reps. Dave Rogers and Sean Garballey.
“I support the Fair Share Amendment because all students in Massachusetts deserve access to high-quality public education,” said East Arlington parent Kate Leary in a June 6 news release. “If this amendment passes, we can realize the promise of fully funding the Student Opportunity Act. This will help us in Arlington, and it will also create greater equity in educational quality across the Commonwealth.”
Arlington parent Alham Saadat said in the release: “I support the Fair Share Amendment because Mass. transportation needs a total overhaul if we want to live in a sustainable and viable future!”
After years of grass-roots advocacy, the state Legislature voted in June 2021 to place the amendment on the November 2022 statewide ballot, where it is now set to be decided on by the voters.
If adopted, the amendment creates a 4-percent tax on annual income above $1 million and dedicate the funds raised to transportation and public education. Only people who earn more above that level will pay more; 99 percent of residents won’t be affected.
Learn more at FairShareMA.com.
The Fair Share for Massachusetts campaign is led by Raise Up Massachusetts, a coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions committed to building an economy that invests in families and aims to give all the opportunity to succeed. Since the coalition came together in 2013, it claims to have nearly doubled wages for hundreds of thousands of working people by supporting two increases in the state’s minimum wage. The coalition also won best-in-the-nation earned sick time and paid family and medical leave benefits for workers and their families.
Previous attempts fail
Adam Reilly of ‘GBH reported in May: “Unlike many other states, Massachusetts currently taxes all income levels at the same 5% rate. Previous attempts to amend the constitution to create a graduated income tax have failed, most recently in 1994, when two-thirds of voters rejected the idea.”
He also reported: “An analysis earlier this year by Tufts University’s Center for State Policy Analysis also said the amendment would raise about $1.3 billion, and found that it would do so ‘in a highly progressive way likely to advance racial and economic equity.’
“However, the analysis warned that there could be a “disproportionate effect on state coffers” if just a few of the state’s wealthiest residents move out of the commonwealth to avoid a new surtax, and that the shift to hybrid and remote work could lead to more residents relocating than previously anticipated.
Opponents of the measure have asked the Supreme Judicial Court to amend Attorney General Maura Healey’s description of the proposed amendment to convey that the funds raised might not lead to the spending increases advocates promise.
Read views of those opposing the amendments at stopthemataxhike.com.
Feb. 9, 2019: Questions about taxes, assessments? Officials respond
This news announcement was published Tuesday, June 7, 2022.
