Opinion: Fair Share amendment is working as intended
by Jason Lewis and James O’Day, Commonwealth Beacon
3 September 2024
LESS THAN TWO YEARS after voters approved the Fair Share Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution, the “millionaire’s tax” is already having a positive impact on Massachusetts. Our state now has a fairer tax system, and we are making transformative investments in education and transportation that are improving residents’ lives.
From 2015 to 2022, we were proud to be the lead legislative sponsors of the Fair Share Amendment, the constitutional amendment to establish a new 4 percent surtax on annual incomes exceeding $1 million, with the revenue dedicated to funding our public schools, colleges, roads, bridges, and public transit. Working alongside the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition of community organizations, faith-based groups, and labor unions, we helped shepherd the amendment through four legislative votes and onto the November 2022 ballot.
The Fair Share Amendment was designed to address two related problems: our unfair tax system, and years of inadequate investment in public education and critical transportation infrastructure. We’re already making great progress on both counts.
Before Fair Share was passed, the richest 1 percent of Massachusetts residents paid a lower portion of their income in state and local taxes than did lower- and middle-income taxpayers. But the new Fair Share tax closes most of that gap, with the state’s highest-income residents now paying closer to the same share of their income that the rest of us pay. And because the tax is only applied to the portion of a taxpayer’s annual income that is over $1 million (with that threshold increased annually for inflation), most of the revenue raised comes from those making more than $5 million – the richest of the rich. As a result, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Massachusetts is now the seventh most “progressive” state tax system in the country, moving up 10 spots from before voters approved the Fair Share Amendment.
While the ultra-rich are paying a little bit more, the Fair Share Amendment is making Massachusetts more affordable for everyone else.