BOSTON (WWLP) – A progressive coalition is already looking toward the 2024 ballot.
The Raise Up Coalition is a group of labor and community groups and they filed paperwork last week to create a ballot question committee. The group is looking to raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour but is also looking at tax avoidance strategies.
The Raise Up coalition was behind last year’s fair share amendment, which added a 4% percent surtax on incomes over $1 million.
The group is now saying additional effort needs to be made to make sure the surtax is properly enforced and that the state’s highest earners don’t get out of paying their fair share. For example, a married couple who earns $1 million collectively could file joint taxes federally, and separate taxes on the state level to avoid the new tax.
Raise Up is backing two pieces of legislation that would require all married couples in the state to file jointly when they do so on their federal taxes.
The coalition shared in a statement to 22News, “tackling the real challenges to the Commonwealth’s economic competitiveness will require significant state spending over the coming years. We need to protect the Fair Share Amendment from tax avoidance, and avoid new tax giveaways to the ultra-rich that would undermine Amendment’s goals.”
Governor Healey in her budget proposal suggested exempting surtax revenue from the state tax cap which Raise Up was happy about, but they still are concerned the Fair Share amendment will not be deployed the way voters intended.
Campaigns must file their initiative petition with the AG’s office by August 2nd.
