OPINION | MOHAMAD ALI AND ALAN CLAYTON-MATTHEWS — Boston Globe
Millionaire tax will put Massachusetts back on track
SCOTT EISEN/GETTY IMAGES — Worn at a Tax Day protest in April in Cambridge.
WE ALL WANT a future for our Commonwealth in which our economy continues to grow, the great quality of life enjoyed by some of us is enjoyed by all of us, and our young people in every community have the opportunity to reach their potential. Building that future requires that we take action today to address significant obstacles to a vibrant future.
As CEO of a Boston-based technology company and as a professor who studies the Massachusetts economy, we know that our Commonwealth’s greatest strength is that we have the best educated workforce in America. However, our ability to grow is severely limited because we still have fewer educated workers than we need. Recent studies of the state’s economic growth predict a significant slowdown in the coming years due to shortages of skilled workers. Further, getting the workers we do have to work and back home is increasingly difficult. Our roads are in poor condition, our decades-old trains break frequently, and the overall transportation system is failing to meet our needs.
Unlike many seemingly intractable problems, these are challenges we can and must solve. There will likely be a proposal on the state ballot in 2018 that would raise $1.9 billion each year, specifically to fund investments in education and transportation. This proposal, known as the Fair Share Amendment, would raise the revenue for these investments by adding an additional 4 percent tax on income over $1 million a year. This rate would be similar to the top rates in a number of high-income states, like New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Minnesota — and still well below California.
