Rally for the Fair Share Amendment
Saturday June 12
Noon on the Greenfield Town Common
The Fair Share Amendment is a proposal to amend the Massachusetts Constitution, creating an additional tax of four percentage points on the portion of a person’s annual income above $1 million. The new revenue, approximately $2 billion a year, would be spent on quality public education, affordable public colleges and universities, and the repair and maintenance of roads, bridges, and public transportation. To ensure that the amendment continues to apply only to the highest income taxpayers, who have the ability to pay more, the $1 million threshold would be adjusted each year to reflect cost-of-living increases.
For years, the highest-income households in Massachusetts – those in the top 1 percent – have paid a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than any other income group. They’ve also benefited from repeated federal tax cuts: 83 percent of the 2017 tax bill’s benefits went to the top 1 percent, and last year, the Federal CARES Act included $135 billion in tax breaks for wealthy business owners.
In June 2019, the Legislature advanced the Fair Share Amendment one step closer to the ballot with a Constitutional Convention vote of 147 in favor to 48 opposed. The Amendment needs to receive another 50% vote of the constitutional convention during the 2021/2022 legislative session in order to be placed on the November 2022 ballot. Independent polling conducted by MassINC in December 2020 found that 72 percent of MA voters support the Fair Share Amendment.
FCCPR is taking a leadership role in the western Mass. Fair Share Organizing Committee. We need your help to make sure that this ballot initiative passes in 2022.
