Latest news with #Millionaire'sTax
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. Republicans assail $25M for parking garage pet project in House speaker's district
Massachusetts Republicans teed off on the top Democrat in the state House on Wednesday for slipping $25 million for a parking garage in his district that critics have denounced as the ultimate 'power play.' State House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, successfully inserted the language into a bill last month that doled out $1.3 billion in surplus cash from the state's so-called 'Millionaire's Tax.' It gave a leg up to the city of Quincy, which is building a 500-spot parking garage for a new Beth Israel Deaconess-run medical facility, according to The Boston Globe, which was the first to report the news. Under state law, money from the Millionaire's Tax, formally known as the 'Fair Share Amendment,' is intended to support education- and transportation-related programs. The chamber allocated $353.5 million for education and $828 million, most of it for the MBTA, for transportation. Critics told the Globe that the language Mariano inserted into the bill stretched the intent of the law., Mariano's actions "siphon money from roads and bridges," and 'back toward the political donors who have padded his campaign account, John Milligan, the executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a statement. "The migrant shelter crisis continues to bleed money from our budget while Massachusetts is ranked the second-most expensive state for families, but State House leadership is still managing to use taxpayer dollars to take care of the friends who have long taken care of them,' Milligan said in an email. In a statement to the Globe, Mariano defended the move, saying the money would pay for an 'essential component' of the new health care facility. 'Providing support for key transportation infrastructure projects, especially projects that are related to the health and well-being of our residents, is one of the most fundamental ways that state government can better the lives of the people that it serves,' Mariano said, according to the newspaper. Quincy has gone all-in on the project, investing $157 million to build a pair of parking garages in Quincy Center, according to the local Patriot-Ledger newspaper. More political news Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Funding for the T could derail Mass. budget debate. Here's how
Good Monday morning, everyone. Just as straphangers on the MBTA's Red Line thought they were done with a month's worth of delays and dreaded 'shuttle trains,' it looks like a debate over funding for the T could snag the debate over this year's state budget. How, you ask? Excellent question. The short answer: As is so often the case, the House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, have very different visions for how to spend roughly $1.3 billion in 'Millionaire's Tax' revenue, which funds transportation and education programs. Now, an argument over how to spend $1.3 billion is, as problems go, a nice one to have. But it could throw debate over the state's annual spending blueprint (which has a price tag of around $61 billion to $62 billion) into a slow zone that only a Red Line rider could fully appreciate. A proposal advanced by Senate Democrats would steer $370 million in Millionaire's Tax revenue to the MBTA. That's far less than the $793 million that a plan backed by House Democrats would send to the T. Read More: So are millionaires really fleeing Mass.? A new report says they're staying — and paying All told, the $1.28 billion supplemental budget that Senate Democrats rolled out last week would set aside $613 million for education and $670 million for transportation and infrastructure, Senate leadership said in an email. The House's version, meanwhile, channels $353 million to education programs and $828 million to transportation and infrastructure spending, State House News Service reported. As a refresher, voters approved the levy, formally known as 'The Fair Share Amendment,' as a statewide referendum in 2022. It hits anyone making over $1 million a year with an extra 4% income tax levy. Read More: Mass. 'Millionaire's Tax' is a year old. Where it's helped, hurt | Analysis The more even split in the Senate plan appears to reflect concerns by lawmakers from outside the I-495 corridor that the perennially cash-strapped and maintenance-challenged T was benefiting at the expense of regional transit agencies elsewhere in the state. 'It is always our goal, but we do not count down to the pennies, to try to equally invest the money in both education and transportation,' Senate Ways & Means Committee Chairperson Rodrigues, D-1st Bristol/Plymouth, told reporters last week, according to State House News Service. State Sen. Joanne M. Comerford, the Senate panel's vice chairperson, said the money will come in particularly handy with federal funding in ... ahhh ... flux. 'My constituents in western Massachusetts canvassed, advocated, and then voted overwhelmingly to pass the Fair Share Amendment,' Comerford, D-Hampshire/Franklin/Worcester, said in a statement. 'It is especially heartening now, amid blistering federal spending cuts, to have funds to invest equitably in education and transportation in the commonwealth.' On the other side of the State House, House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said last month that the lower chamber's big spend on transportation reflects its goal of 'ensuring that every Massachusetts resident has access to a safe and reliable public transportation system.' House Ways and Means Committee Chairperson Aaron Michlewitz, D-3rd Suffolk, offered a similar sentiment, observing that the Millioniare's Tax cash is a 'unique opportunity for us to better strength[en] the commonwealth.' The debate over how to spend the windfall from the state's super-wealthy (again, a nice problem to have) will take place alongside the debate over the general fund budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1, according to published reports. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey has already filed her $62 billion version of the spending blueprint. The House proposes a smidge less at $61.4 billion. The Senate is expected to unveil its budget proposal this week. As a matter of law and practice, the state is supposed to have a new budget in place by 12:01 a.m. on July 1. As a matter of actual practice, they've overshot the deadline for years. And it looks like this year may be no different. Rodriques, balancing optimism against hard-fought experience, said lawmakers will try for an on-time budget this year, State House News Service reported. 'It's always our goal, yes,' he said. Some big numbers last week for a pair of pols looking to defeat entrenched incumbents. For Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft, that big number was 3,000. That's how many signatures the first-time pol needed to collect to be certified to appear on this fall's ballot. After a day of canvassing in neighborhoods across the city on Thursday, Kraft said his camp more than doubled up, collecting 6,500 signatures for the fall ballot. 'I am grateful to our team of volunteers that collected 6,500 signatures ... as it shows the strong support and momentum for my candidacy and our campaign,' Kraft, who's challenging incumbent mayor Michelle Wu, said in a statement. Wu's campaign said Friday that it's so far turned in more than 6,700 signatures from residents in every neighborhood in the city. 'We're thrilled by the outpouring of support from residents across every neighborhood of Boston. It's a reflection of the momentum behind Mayor Wu's leadership and focus on making Boston a home for everyone,' a spokesperson told MassLive. For Republican gubernatorial hopeful Mike Kennealy, it was $130,000 (and some change). That's how much the former Baker administration official said he raised in the first three weeks of his campaign for the Corner Office. The GOP hopeful added that he's already committed to spending $2 million of his own money in his bid to unseat Healey, who said in February, that she's running for a second term. Healey was sitting on nearly $2.9 million in her campaign account as of late last week, state filings showed. The top Democrat in the state Senate, Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, has confirmed that she plans to seek reelection in 2026, according to NBC-10 in Boston, which snagged the scooplet last week, as part of a broader conversation with the MetroWest lawmaker. 'The thing about the economy is that when people get uncertain, they stop buying things, and if they're a business, they stop hiring people. And then those decisions start becoming self-fulfilling, right? Then you start to tip into a recession because consumers stop buying, some businesses stop being able to sell [things], [and] some businesses stop hiring. And then, because they stop hiring, people get nervous ... And this is how you start to spiral down.' U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District, fresh off meetings with constituents, business leaders, financiers and others, sums up their mood on President Donald Trump's economic policies. 'It's what they deserve': Trump will move to strip Harvard's tax-exempt status Mass. Rep. Auchincloss on how Harvard can 'Punch the bully in the nose' | John L. Micek 17 'crucial' AmeriCorps programs in Mass. on the chopping block amid DOGE cuts Mass. Gov. Healey: Trump's fight with Harvard isn't about protecting student safety How a Mass. group is fighting Trump cutting assistance for legal green card holders Boston Mayor Wu leads Josh Kraft in new poll, but pressure points arise Do you know a Massachusetts Republican who's done something particularly noteworthy or helped to make their corner of creation a better place? If so, the Massachusetts Republican Party wants to hear from you. Nominations are officially open for the 2025 Lincoln-Reagan Award, which, as the name suggests, honors the legacy of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. 'Do you know a standout Republican who has made a powerful impact in your community or across our state?' the state party said in an email. 'It could be an elected official who's led with integrity, a grassroots warrior who never backs down, or an activist whose passion has inspired the next generation. Whether they're in the trenches or behind the scenes, we want to hear about them,' the party continued. This year's event takes place on Thursday, May 29, at the Lenox Hotel in Boston. Organizers promise more details to come on that score. You can submit your suggestions right here. You saw her in 'Wicked' and you loved her. So now's your chance to catch actor/singer Cynthia Erivo in Massachusetts. She takes the stage at Symphony Hall in Boston on May 8 (tickets and more information here). From 2021, before mega-stardom, here's the very lovely 'Alive.' Okay, so granted, this is happening across the pond in the United Kingdom. And it's got a bit of the nanny state about it. But if you've ever spent time on public transportation and found yourself forced to listen to the chaotic symphony that is speakerphones turned to full blast, then you might understand the appeal. From GQ's UK edition: If there was any platform on which the Lib Dems could sweep into power, it's this: the party have proposed a ban on playing music and videos out loud on public transport. Any 'headphone dodgers' (their phrase) who don't comply would be fined a maximum of £1,000. You or I could probably think of far worse punishments we wish would befall those who share the audio of their TikTok algorithm or their favourite Diary of a CEO episode with an entire train or tube carriage. Crush their phones under the wheels of said train or tube? Revive the medieval stocks for repeat offenders? There probably isn't a single political policy more popular in Britain than a pitiless clampdown on all this: a YouGov poll last year found that 86% of British adults 'consider using speakerphones in shared environments inappropriate'. The piece does raise the very real issue of enforcement. And it asserts, sensibly, that sometimes, it's as simple as asking someone to turn down the volume. Best of luck if you try this one on your own. Let me know how it goes. That's it for today. As always, tips, comments and questions can be sent to jmicek@ Have a good week, friends. Mass. Rep. Auchincloss on how Harvard can 'Punch the bully in the nose' | John L. Micek Trump at 100 Days: In Mass., protests, pushback and all the lawsuits | John L. Micek Mass. gave the U.S. its Constitution. Why it matters more than ever| Bay State Briefing Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive. Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
So are millionaires really fleeing Mass.? A new report says they're staying — and paying
It's a common refrain: Massachusetts' Millionaire's Tax, the levy slapped on the state's wealthiest citizens, is prompting an exodus to more tax-friendly climes. Notably, former Boston Celtics star Grant Williams declined to stay in Boston in 2023, instead signing with the Dallas Mavericks, as he pointed directly to the extra 4% income tax levy on people who earn $1 million or more. But new data shared exclusively with MassLive appears to show that Williams and others who have left the state are the exception rather than the rule. The wealthy are staying in the Bay State — and they're paying. And there are more of them. The analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies and State Revenue Alliance concluded that the number of ultra-wealthy people, defined as those with at least $50 million in total wealth, grew from 1,954 in 2022 — before voters approved the Millionaire's Tax at a statewide referendum — to 2,642 in 2024. That's an increase of 35.2% according to the analysis, which relies on data from Wealth-X, a proprietary database of millions of records on the world's wealthiest individuals. The study was commissioned by the progressive-minded advocacy group Raise Up Massachusetts. 'It has been two years into the experiment of progressive taxation in Massachusetts, and the evidence is clear: the surtax has succeeded in raising revenue and exceeded all expectations,' Omar Ocampo, the report's lead author and a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies, said in a statement. 'The state now has more resources at [its] disposal to help fund essential programs that expand economic opportunity for all,' Ocampo said. Read More: Mass. 'Millionaire's Tax' is a year old. Where it's helped, hurt | Analysis Taken together, those 2,642 super-wealthy people account for just 0.04% of the state's total population of 7.1 million people. However, they have an outsized impact, holding an eye-watering $500.4 billion in total wealth, according to the analysis. The report also found that the number of millionaires by net worth in Massachusetts rose by 38.6% between 2022 and 2024, from 441,610 individuals to 612,109. The report's authors said, " It's important to note that because the ... tax only applies to taxpayers with annual taxable income above $1 million, only a small percentage of those millionaires will pay any amount in [Millionaire's] taxes." The number of Massachusetts taxpayers with annual income above $1 million was approximately 27,000 in 2022, the last year for which data were available from the IRS, the report's authors wrote. Under state law, money that's raised from the levy can only be used to fund education and transportation projects. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey's $62 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 leans heavily on the levy to pay for a bevy of state programs and to support the MBTA and other transportation projects. At a public hearing earlier this month, budget writers in the state House and Senate debated the best way to spend some $1.3 billion in unspent money from the levy formally known as the 'Fair Share Amendment.' A $61 billion spending proposal for fiscal 2026 being advanced by majority Democrats in the state House of Representatives also relies on money from the Millionaire's Tax to continue to fund free school meals for all students, early education grants, and free community college. It also would contribute to a significant increase in funding for the MBTA — the House proposes a total of $687 million for T operating costs — at a time when the transit agency faces a major funding gap that could imperil recent service improvements, according to State House News Service. That's proof that the tax is doing what it was intended to do, Shanique Rodriguez, the executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, and a member of Raise Up Massachusetts' steering committee, said. 'As Fair Share revenue continues to surpass expectations, this is further evidence that multi-millionaires are not fleeing the state in response to the new tax – they are staying here, paying more in taxes, and enjoying the stronger transportation and public education systems that Fair Share dollars are funding,' Rodriguez said in a statement. 'As income and wealth inequality continue to escalate nationally and in Massachusetts, the Fair Share Amendment is making our state tax system fairer and strengthening our entire economy by funding new investments in transportation and public education,' she continued. The tax, however, is not without its critics. Namely, the pro-business Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which has been among the most vocal. In an interview in 2023, Paul Craney, a spokesperson for the group, told MassLive that the tax cuts would improve the state's economic competitiveness. 'Other states know they can continue to lure high-income earners and businesses because Massachusetts has not responded to the income surtax in an appropriate way,' Craney told MassLive at the time. 'It will continue to ravage our competitiveness. Other states will continue to prey on us because this is on the books.' In particular, that's New Hampshire and Florida, which are the top two destinations for Massachusetts residents seeking more tax-friendly climates. 'This will continue to impact [Massachusetts],' Craney told Masslive. 'Other states are aware of this income tax hike. It's given ... states that are highly competitive with Massachusetts the ability to plan ahead.' An analysis earlier this year by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation lent some firepower to Craney's arguments. The Bay State ranked 41st overall in the foundation's annual State Tax Competitiveness Index. The state also finished among the bottom 10 states on the Index 'due to its overly burdensome individual income taxes, property taxes, and [unemployment insurance] taxes,' according to the Tax Foundation's analysis. And many state residents are voting with their feet. More people left Massachusetts than moved into it in 2024, according to an analysis earlier this year by United Van Lines. Massachusetts ranked No. 5 on its list of the 'most moved from states in 2024,' according to the analysis. 'California, Massachusetts, New York, Illinois and New Jersey have been included in the top outbound states over the past five years,' the company said in a statement. The tax's backers, meanwhile, remained adamant in their insistence that it's a win-win for the Bay State. 'The Fair Share Amendment is a huge success for Massachusetts — and a national victory — because it shows that we are all better off when we work toward justice in the tax code,' Amber Wallin, the executive director of the State Revenue Alliance, said. 'Far from filling U-Hauls headed out of the Commonwealth, there's 171,000 more millionaires in Massachusetts than there were before the Fair Share Amendment. President Donald Trump should take notice: demanding the wealthy pay their fair share is a good investment in everyone's future — including the rich," Wallin continued. 2 big reasons to care about the Harvard-Trump battle royale| Bay State Briefing How Trump vs. Harvard is a page out of the Project 2025 playbook 'Games of chicken': Trump reversing foreign student legal status raises concerns Poll reveals divide between Gen Z and older Americans on finances and economy Mass. AG Campbell sues Trump admin after threat to hold education funds over DEI Read the original article on MassLive.
