State House News Service
Friday, October 29, 2010
Poll shows support for Grad Tax
By Kyle Cheney
Republican Charles Baker has bludgeoned Gov. Deval Patrick for voicing
support for the concept of a graduated income tax, but Massachusetts
voters would support that tax structure by a wide margin, a Friday News
Service poll shows.
About 57 percent of those surveyed said they favor “a graduated state
income tax in Massachusetts, which raises or lowers a person’s tax rate
based on income level,” while 34 oppose such a system and 9 percent were
undecided.” The poll of 400 registered voters was taken between Oct. 25
and Oct. 27 and carried a 4.8 percent margin of error.
The poll showed widespread support among Democrats, who favor the plan
62-26, with 12 percent undecided. Republicans oppose a graduated income
tax 41-52, with 5 percent unsure. Independents broke in favor of the
system, 57-34, with 9 percent undecided.
The state is prohibited by the Massachusetts Constitution from levying
taxes based on income brackets, and proposals to amend the constitution
to permit it were defeated by voters in 1962, 1968, 1972, 1976, and
1994.
Backers of a graduated income tax say it is fairer because upper income
brackets pay a higher proportion of their earnings on taxes, while a
flat tax overburdens lower-income residents. Opponents say taxing
different income brackets at different rates leaves the door open to
perpetual tax increases targeted at different income brackets each year,
and would discourage people from climbing the income ladder.
Patrick took heat on the campaign trail for expressing support for a
graduated income tax, although he’s emphasized he has no plans to
propose one and that it would take a multi-year effort to amend the
state constitution to permit a graduated tax. The state’s current income
tax rate is 5.3 percent regardless of income bracket.
“I think a progressive income tax is fairer than the flat tax we have,”
he said during a radio appearance last month. “I don't think that the
time is right for anyone to be talking about new taxes.”
Asked about the poll results, the Baker campaign suggested that a
graduated income tax would amount to raising taxes “significantly” on
“working people and job-producing small businesses.”
“As anti-tax advocate Barbara Anderson pointed out yesterday in a
memo to Governor
Patrick, every time the progressive income tax was put before the
voters, it was rejected,” said Baker campaign spokesman Rick Gorka.
“What does the Governor not understand? Raising taxes during a recession
is a job killing policy.”
Rep. Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington), co-chair of the Legislature’s Committee
on Revenue, declined to comment. Kaufman has previously discussed his
desire to pursue “comprehensive” reform of the state’s tax code next
session, calling for “a difficult and adult conversation about how we
tax ourselves.”
“It would be my hope to do it next session,” Kaufman told the News
Service in May. “It's an intellectual challenge first and then a
political challenge next, so stay tuned. I'm heavily invested in
rose-colored glasses. I think we can do this, but we’ll see.”
He told the News Service at the time that state and local taxes
currently are “regressive,” with low-income residents “paying the
largest share of their income” on state and local taxes and wealthier
residents paying less as a percentage of income.
Anderson told the News Service Friday she is confident that any
effort to move to a graduated income tax would be defeated. She said
critics of the policy warn voters that a graduated income tax would give
lawmakers license to target specific income brackets for tax increases
year after year, and that the argument resonates in “every working class
city in the state.”
“That was one of those concepts that everyone grasped immediately,” she
said. “That’s why the graduated income tax is very unpopular.”
Anderson said a graduated income tax would not necessarily equate to a
tax cut for lower-income residents, noting that once granted the power
to adjust tax rates, the state could simply raise taxes on wealthier
residents. She said the proposal would also serve as a disincentive for
people to earn more.
Anderson said her first exposure to the concept of a graduated income
tax came when her husband described it as the one “where the harder you
work the more they steal from you.”
“He instinctively understood what the problem was,” she said. “Working
class people just seem to understand this instinctively.”
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪ PO
Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
