By Christian M. Wade
Gloucester Daily Times, Mass.
(TNS)
BOSTON — A coalition of union leaders and community activists are suing to block a proposed cut to the state’s personal income tax rate.
A proposal by the Massachusetts High Technology Council, Pioneer Institute and other groups, which is inching toward the Nov. 3 ballot, would reduce the personal income tax rate from 5% to 4% over three years, which backers say would save individual taxpayers an estimated $3,000 during that period.
But a lawsuit filed by a group of union leaders and community activists claims the wording of signature petitions to qualify for the ballot were “misleading and deceptive” because it didn’t mention the cuts would cover all three categories of income taxes, including capital gains taxes paid by businesses.
In the 32-page complaint, the plaintiffs claim the cuts would “overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest one percent of Massachusetts taxpayers through the reduction of taxes on long-term capital gains, interest, dividends, salaries, wages and other income.”
They said the proposal is also “deeply regressive” and “would trigger massive state budget cuts, effectively taking from the poor and middle class, and benefiting the wealthy, to the detriment of the citizens of Massachusetts who rely upon publicly funded education, health care, public safety, transportation, and other services.”
“With this lawsuit, we’re standing up for the right of voters to know what they’re voting on, and the right of petition signers to know what they’re signing,” said Lew Finfer, director of Massachusetts Action for Justice, and one of several plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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Backers of the ballot question shrugged off the new legal challenge, saying they expect to prevail in court and put the question before the state’s voters.
“We are fully confident that the summary written by the Attorney General and her team is accurate and fair,” Chris Keohan, a spokesman for Taxpayers for an Affordable MA, said in a statement. “While our opponents continue to fearmonger, we will focus on the affordability crisis here in Massachusetts.”
“The facts are clear. This ballot question has overwhelming support, including 75% of union households, and it will put $1,300 (on average) back in the pockets of working families across the Commonwealth at a time when it is desperately needed,” he added.
A report released last week by the left-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center estimated that cutting the income tax rate would mean an estimated $5 billion less revenue for the state government.
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The group said the rate cut would deliver “unequal relief” for Massachusetts households, with middle- and low-income taxpayers seeing only “modest benefits” while those with the highest incomes would see “large windfalls” in tax savings.
“By delivering large windfalls to the state’s most affluent and only small or modest benefits to everyone else, the tax cut would widen Massachusetts’ already large inequalities of income and wealth,” they wrote in the report.
But backers of the plan say cutting income taxes is part of a broader strategy to help the state shake its “Taxachusetts” label while creating more jobs and improving competitiveness.
The group argues that the state’s high tax burden is contributing to an exodus of taxpayers and businesses, which has long-term economic implications.
Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question in 2000 to cut the personal income tax rate to 5%. At the time the rate was 5.85%.
Two years after its passage, however, the Legislature outraged supporters of the rollback by freezing the personal income tax at 5.3% to plug budget shortfalls.
Lawmakers approved a process to reduce the tax rate if growth in the state’s annual revenue met certain benchmarks. But it took nearly two decades for the rate to come down to 5%, which happened in January 2019.
Income tax collections represent more than 58% of the revenue used to keep state government running.
Photo caption: The Massachusetts State House building in Boston. (APCortizasJr/iStock)
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© 2026 the Gloucester Daily Times (Gloucester, Mass.). Visit www.gloucestertimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Tags: income tax, income tax cuts, Income Taxes, lawsuits, massachusetts, Taxes
