Boston Globe, November 2021
A proposed constitutional amendment that would layer a surcharge on yearly earnings above $1 million will land on the ballot in 2022, years after it first surfaced during a time of mounting needs for Massachusetts’ school and transportation systems—and of financial uncertainty for the state.
The yawning shortfalls and prospectivebillion-dollar budget gaps of several years ago, however, have been replaced by an unexpected budget surplus, a state emergency savings account that’s surged to a record $4.6 billion, and multibillion-dollar buckets of federal aid that lawmakers say can bring “generational change” to Massachusetts.
That perception of a flush state government has shifted the ground under the intensifying debate between labor unions and activists, who warn the state’s needs will far outstrip its current financial good fortune and business leaders who caution that hiking taxes on the rich could unnecessarily undercut the state’s competitiveness.
