The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has spoken. There will not be a vote on the “Fair Share Amendment” on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The court ruled the ballot question unconstitutional because education and transportation are not “related or mutually dependent” to the proposed creation of a 4 percent surtax on any portion of an individual’s annual income that exceeds $1 million. The initiative petition struck down by the 5-2 vote of the Supreme Judicial Court would have generated an estimated $2 billion in additional revenue for education and transportation.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Massachusetts High Technology Council, National Federation of Independent Business, Associated Industries of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Competitive Partnership brought the case that resulted in the ruling that the so-called “millionaire tax” was unconstitutional.
So, their members are happy, and millionaires’ earnings are safe for now. But the real issues that are challenges for the commonwealth aren’t going away.
The cost of state-funded higher education has gone up while state funding has decreased. Our community colleges have had funding cuts of $2,100 per student since fiscal year 2001 while tuition and fees have gone up by $2,800 per student. Our four-year public colleges have lost $3,000 per student during the same period while tuition and fees have gone up by $4,600.
We are 31st in the country for higher education spending per capita and we rank 43rd in higher education support per $1,000 of personal income. Debt for students at public higher education institutions has gone up as state support has declined.
The state share of the cost of secondary and elementary education has stayed essentially the same since 2001. The federal government share has also stayed the same. Local governments (the ones with the tax cap) fund 55 percent of the commonwealth’s costs of educating our children.
Legislators, local government officials, parents and teachers all recognize the need to update the state’s education funding formula so that public school children get the education they need to thrive. The estimated cost for a revision of the formula is $1 billion.
There also is the challenge of nurturing and educating the youngest children in Massachusetts. The commonwealth’s spending on early education and care has declined by 22.3 percent when adjusted for inflation. The return on that investment in young children has been demonstrated by economists and educators, but we are falling behind as other states move ahead.
And then there is the challenge of transportation. This year, the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and the Franklin Regional Transit Authority were threatened with severe cuts to their services. Sadly, this is a scenario that plays out every few years because the regional transit authorities are the forgotten workhorses of the statewide transportation. The Massachusets Bay Transportation Authority is the focus of the administration’s efforts, not the buses that take people to work in western Massachusetts. And the MBTA is a mess, despite being number one on the governor’s to-do list.
In 2015, 37 percent of the state roads in Massachusetts were in fair or poor condition. Municipalities are responsible for maintaining 30,000 miles of local roads, which is about 80 percent of all the road miles in the state. It would take $693 million each year to keep local roads in good repair.
Massachusetts ranks 21st in the country for bridges in poor condition. We have 4,718 bridges in need of $18.5 billion worth of repairs.
The inability of state government to pay for the educational and transportation needs of the commonwealth is a slow-motion crisis.
Education has always been the basic building block of opportunity in Massachusetts — the state that established free public education for all children in 1827. Education is not only a building block of opportunity, it is the foundation that our democracy rests on. And it fuels the innovation economy that has always been a hallmark of the commonwealth.
Roads, bridges, buses and trains connect us to our neighboring communities, jobs and education. Access to public transportation can be the difference for a returning community college student or a high school student starting their first job. Interconnected communities with good roads, safe bridges, and public transportation attract employers and workers. Right now, we are losing young families to other states.
As I wrote in 2015, a person earning less than $22,000 per year pays 10.4 percent of their income on state and local taxes. Someone making $44,000 to $70,000 pays 9.3 percent of their income. Someone making $252,000 to $860,000 will pay 7.1 percent of their income and anyone making more than that will pay 4.9 percent to the state and their local community as their share of our common costs.
According to a study done by the Economic Policy Institute, Massachusetts is sixth of the 50 states in income inequality. Only California, Connecticut, Nevada, Florida and New York have even wider inequality than we do. An astonishing 23 percent of all the income in Massachusetts goes to the top 1 percent of earners.
These are the people that would have been affected by the “Fair Share Amendment.” They are the same people who will receive benefits from the Trump administration’s tax cut. They are the people who can buy their way out of public schools and aren’t riding the PVTA.
The Supreme Judicial Court may not have seen education and transportation as “related or mutually dependent,” and they may be right legally.
But we are all mutually dependent. And while some called the amendment a “millionaire tax,” it really is about fairness.
Clare Higgins, of Northampton, a former mayor of the city, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action Pioneer Valley. She can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.