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How should Mass. lawmakers spend the money from the state's millionaires tax? We asked around.
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TODAY'S STARTING POINT
Call it the $1.3 billion question: How should Massachusetts spend the extra money that its so-called millionaires tax raised?
First, some background. In 2022, Massachusetts voters approved a 4 percent surtax on annual income over $1 million. The constitutional amendment that created it requires that the money go to transportation and education initiatives. Last fiscal year alone, the tax raised more than $2.4 billion, or about $1.3 billion beyond what officials budgeted. This year, revenue has again
The amendment left the Legislature with a lot of leeway to decide which initiatives to fund, and lawmakers have been
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This week, lawmakers
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More for the T
The Legislature's compromise proposal would give $535 million to the MBTA. But some argue that the T, which has languished with insufficient funding and a backlog of repair work for decades, could use more.
Amy Sutherland, a Charlestown resident and Starting Point reader, framed it this way: 'Making the T work at a 21st century level would solve traffic, economic, social, and climate problems in Boston and the surrounding metro area,' she wrote in an email. Jonathan Cohn of Progressive Mass, a liberal advocacy group, suggests using some millionaires tax revenue to expand efforts to make MBTA buses and trains free to ride.
Other transportation needs
The MBTA isn't the only transit service in the state that could use money. There are also
Another possibility, Wilson said, could be to expand so-called
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The federal funding gap
But paying for transportation needs alone would leave little for other challenges — including ones that didn't exist when voters first approved the millionaires tax, like the Trump administration's efforts to cut federal funding to states. The administration has moved to
'Resources should be allocated to protect the schools impacted by these attacks,' Dominic Copeland and Davian Pagan of the Massachusetts Communities Action Network, a faith-based organizing collective, wrote. Jessica Tang leads the state branch of the American Teachers Association, which supported passage of the amendment. Tang said that $690 million — about half the Legislature's compromise proposal — could support low-income students and students with disabilities, as well as cover the Medicaid reimbursements that schools use to provide speech therapy, nursing, and more.
The administration is also pushing legislation in Congress that would cut federal student aid, which helps low-income
What's next?
There's no shortage of ideas about what to do with the money, but the debate over the millionaires tax may be unfolding on borrowed time.
Some business leaders remain staunchly opposed, arguing that the tax is a drag on the economy and will cause wealthier residents to leave the state. Research groups that support the tax recently reported that
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Even if it stays in effect, it's unclear how much the tax will raise in the future. The surtax is tied to inflation, which means its income threshold has risen. In effect, the millionaires tax may
Still, any repeal effort would likely take years. And for now, the tax continues to bear fruit, raising more than state officials expected. Wilson, of Transportation for Massachusetts, sees a long list of possibilities. 'There are a lot of needs across the state,' he wrote.
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9 Across:
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BESIDE THE POINT
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