In virtual forums and in-person gatherings, labor partners supporting the Fair Share Amendment are sharing a single message: Let’s work together to explain what its approval could mean for public education and transportation.
The amendment proposes a change to the state Constitution that would dedicate as much as $2 billion annually, in perpetuity, for public education and transportation needs. It will be on the ballot next November.
For the last several months, MTA members have participated in forums and small gatherings, including local union meetings, where members have envisioned what such dedicated revenue could mean for their public schools and college campuses.
The MTA is part of a grassroots coalition of union, faith-based and community organizations that make up Raise Up Massachusetts. The organizations are working together — and ramping up their activities — to support approval of the ballot measure.
Since September, MTA members have held or participated in more than 100 meetings to advance the campaign, including standalone events and a variety of local gatherings.
About 60 meetings with locals have taken place that included MTA leaders. In recent weeks, educators’ unions in Marion, Framingham, Watertown and Easthampton, among others, have talked about the amendment.
And more than 3,000 MTA members have signed digital or physical pledge cards to support the amendment. Activists who agree to back the campaign are asked initially to have simple conversations with family members and friends, explaining what the amendment is and what it will — and won’t — mean for state residents. Massachusetts has a flat income tax of 5 percent. The amendment would add 4 percentage points — 4 cents on the dollar — to the tax on the portion of annual income above $1 million.
The estimated $2 billion that the FSA would generate each year to help public schools, colleges and universities, as well as transportation, would represent a major and reliable funding stream.
On Nov. 15, the Western Massachusetts Area Labor Federation, a coalition of unions in four counties, hosted a virtual meeting on the amendment that included MTA President Merrie Najimy and Vice President Max Page as panelists.
More than 35 people attended the forum.
Panelist Richard Wolff, a retired professor of economics at UMass Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, a university in New York City, spoke about the systemic inequities in the federal tax structure. It wasn’t always this way, he noted.
During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed, and the Congress adopted, a top tax bracket with a 94 percent tax on income over $25,000, or the equivalent of about $400,000 in today’s dollars, Wolff explained.
"Don’t let anyone tell you we can’t have higher tax rates than we do now; we have," Wolff said. Throughout the 1950s and the early 1960s, top brackets were in the 90 percent range. Under President Ronald Reagan, Wolff said, "they came down to the 30 to 39 percent range — a dramatic gift to the richest people in our society."
Lydia Wood, the labor federation’s executive director, said coalition members will need to mount a strong outreach effort.
All coalition partners are encouraging their members to fill out the pledge cards, in which they promise to vote for the amendment next November. Those who can are encouraged to volunteer for the campaign.
"Going door to door is a great way to talk to people about this," Wood said, adding that she has "had some really great conversations with people across the political spectrum on this."
Over the summer, the Legislature gave final approval to putting the amendment before voters on Nov. 8, 2022.
Because it would tax only income above $1 million, the amendment will apply to a small percentage of taxpayers. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, in a recent report, found that most small-business owners will be unaffected. Only 2.6 percent of tax filers who receive pass-through income, including from businesses, have taxable incomes exceeding $1 million, the center found.
Najimy, speaking at the labor forum, said the Fair Share Amendment was named intentionally by the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition.
"As unions, we fight for the common good agenda, which means fundamentally we are working for shared prosperity," she said. "The fairness equates with justice. And sharing really equates with shared prosperity."
Coalition members will have to counter misconceptions, Page said, including a false argument that millionaires will leave for states that have lower or no taxes on personal income. The data shows the opposite. "States with higher taxes on millionaires had higher growth than low-tax states," he said.
For more information, visit massteacher.org/fairshare and raiseupma.org.
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