2y ago

New Massachusetts 'Tax the Rich' law raises $1.5 billion for free school lunch and more

www.rawstory.com

A new "millionaire's tax" in Massachusetts was expected to generate $1 billion in revenue last year to help pay for public education, infrastructure, and early childcare programs, but projections were a bit off, according to a fresh state analysis.
The state Department of Revenue estimated late last week that the Fair Share Amendment, which requires people with incomes over $1 million, to pay a 4% annual surtax, will add $1.5 billion to state coffers this fiscal year, which ends in June—surpassing expectations.
Universal free school meals, much-needed improvements to an aging public transportation system, and tuition-free education for community college students are just some of the programs Massachusetts' wealthiest residents have helped pay for after voters approved the law in 2022 amid growing calls across the United States to tax the richest households and corporations.

74 comments

While Tax the Rich is fair and accurate, I wish we could point out that this isn't some undue burden. This is just reclaiming the surplus wealth they've extracted from the economy.
We can and should do far more, but this is a good start.
- Libertarians think taxation is theft. Be sure to tell them every time they use a road, a hospital, a sporting ground, drink clean water they are stealing from the government and any one who paid more tax than them
  
  Also every time they use anything that involves radio transmission, eat food that is safe, breathe air that is clean, flush their poop into the sewer system, or work in a safe environment.
  
  True libertarians believe the country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.
  
  And if that doesn’t dissuade them, point out that libertarians are a delicacy to bears.
  
  Rob libertarians, got it.
  
  Taxation IS theft. So what? We permit the government to steal from those fucknuts for the services they use. If they don't like it, they can hire a bigger army than us.
- It's beyond me why Americans, who scream about government taxation, can't see how large corporations essentially have added a hidden, ever increasing line item tax to their paychecks to extract wealth.
  And then we fawn over billionaires donating their money to causes we perceive as beneficial to society - they're just returning stolen money without interest or penalty, which could have been better used when money was actually earned.
  
  It’s beyond me why Americans, who scream about government taxation, can’t see how large corporations essentially have added a hidden, ever increasing line item tax to their paychecks to extract wealth.
  It is largely because they see these price increases as consequences of some hidden government hand, while price cuts are attributed to a competitive marketplace. In short, its propaganda.
  We train people, from an early age, to believe that competition brings prices down and regulation forces prices up. We don't learn about the profit motive as an upward price impulse or spend significant amounts of time on monopolies and their impact on marginal pricing. We absolutely 100% do not ever discuss the difference between Exchange Value and Utility Value when discussing economic productivity. The impact of speculative investments on retail prices is straight out never mentioned ever.
  So all anyone has left to go on is "gas prices are up because the government did a war" and "computer prices are up because the government did a tariff" and "food prices are up because the government did a tax".
  And then we fawn over billionaires donating their money to causes we perceive as beneficial to society - they’re just returning stolen money without interest or penalty, which could have been better used when money was actually earned.
  Philanthropy is when a single incredibly rich guy gives money away for free.
  Public Spending is when a soulless bureaucracy steals Peter to pay Paul.
  Therefore, public sector bad and private sector good.
- Yeah. This is a good first step. But it needs to go further. A lot of the wealth is not in direct income. We should be including in this capital gains, and perhaps imposing a similar tax on people with assets totally $10M+ or so. A lot of valuation comes at people holding huge assets and stocks, increasing in value and they take loans out on those assets to actually buy anything.
- You feel no burden when compound interest carries you on angel's wings
- Even removing the terms "surplus wealth" and "extracted" - which I don't necessarily disagree with in all instances but which isn't going to win anyone over - this still is not some undue burden.
  I'd like to see this tackled as a simple conversation between discretionary and non-discretionary spending. A poor person struggles with even sales tax increases because they have little discretionary income. A rich person has vastly more discretionary income and thus is the least burdened by new taxation of any sort.
  Gets around all the "fair tax"/"flat tax" arguments right from the jump.
  
  That's a great point and I'll remember it for the future.
It's basic economics .... if you pay to have healthy children ... they'll grow to to be healthy adults.
Healthy children are cheaper to take care of than unhealthy adults.
It doesn't matter if you are conservative or liberal or even socially minded or libertarian..... if you don't take care of your children and everyone else's children, they'll all grow up to be everyone's problem for decades to come.
- Basic logic with a side of math? Many conservatives' only weakness! 😵
Oh, but I was told the rich would just move if they were taxed! You mean to tell me rich people in Massachusetts don't want to give up their mansions on Martha's Vineyard and their luxury apartments in Boston?
The amendment was narrowly passed via a statewide ballot initiative in 2022 despite claims by opponents that it would force wealthy residents and businesses to leave the state.
Props for getting it passed.
- despite claims by opponents that it would force wealthy residents and businesses to leave the state.
  That would lower housing costs. Probably not the smartest pitch for the opposition to take.
  
  All the wealthy residents who give that much of a shit are in New Hampshire already, anyway.
- Oh no what will we do without all the wealthy robber barons exploiting us.
  Seriously, what a dumb threat.
  
  This is also the crowd whose second favorite book that they've never read is a fantasy about the wealthy robber barons making their own society ~~with blackjack and hookers~~ and leaving the rest of us to rot.
- Thank you. I was stoked to vote for it, and very happy to see it pass. That said, there was a truly silly amount of misinformation that the opponents were running. At one point I got fed up with their bullshit propaganda texts and just responded by trolling them back. I know it’s a bot, but it was cathartic.
  
  At one point I got fed up with their bullshit propaganda texts and just responded by trolling them back. I know it’s a bot, but it was cathartic.
  Sometimes yelling at a cloud makes me feel better.
- I just can't follow the logic, I'm sorry. These people and businesses are worth millions, aren't they? However 4% of millions could mean the difference between affluence and living on the street is beyond me. I mean, what other threats could realistically force millionaires to leave a place? Being butthurt? I'm betting they certainly won't be too afraid to pick up the phone and call their wealth managers to tell them to start making their money work even harder for them than before.
- I'm torn between "...and nothing of value was lost" and "...but of course those fears never materialized." But I guess por que no los dos?
Actual GOOD news? Wtf Internet, I came here to get mad!
The fear mongering and misinformation in the campaign against this ballot initiative was ridiculous. Opponents tried to take advantage of ignorance about how marginal taxes work.
If you sell your house for $1,000,010.00, under this new law you pay an extra 40 cents on top of what you'd have normally paid.
- Wow. Clearly theft. Taxation if theft. Let the children die and leave the potholes in front of my burning house.
This is an outrage. Billionaires should be corralled and milked like rodents for school lunches
- I don't think well-off mice milk is FDA approved or nutritionally complete. Maybe privileged capybara is, but I can't be bothered to look at the study to confirm.
- Is rodent milk a thing?
  
  malk
But but but conservatives said that if you raise taxes on the wealthy then they'll just move away and we'll wind up with even less! Could the conservatives have been wrong?!? Does it actually turn out that wealthy people can afford to live wherever they like even if that area is more expensive to live in?!!? Impossible!!!
/s
- So they're saying we need a steeper exit tax too? OK, let's goooooooo
Let’s go! Massachusetts on top
Massachusetts is an interesting place to observe because it's right next to libertarian New Hampshire, which has much lower taxes. I'm nowhere near being affected by this tax, but I used to live in Massachusetts and I did reduce my taxes significantly by moving to New Hampshire. IMO New Hampshire is better overall. The only thing I missed about the Boston area were the restaurants.
- Watch out for bears.
  
  In my experience, native New Hampshire libertarians aren't the sort of libertarians you'd encounter on the internet. They generally don't call themselves libertarians and they're a lot more practical (as seen in your article - it was the internet libertarians attracting the bears). They're more like small-government conservatives would be if the conservative movement in the USA hadn't gone off the rails.
Stinkin fuckin libtards.. both sides the same...
- You forgot the "/s"
  
  Lol look at the downvotes. The sad part was writing it in Foghorn Leghorn's voice in my head, I thought it was obvious bc "people don't really say things like this" oh well. I'm def not on Lemmy for karma haha

74 comments