Legislative approval for a ballot question that could add a new tax on the wealthiest earners in Massachusetts will have to wait until April to move forward.
The Legislature spent the day cleaning out the constitutional closet, plowing through almost a decade of accumulated amendments proposed to state’s governing document. The House and Senate cleared a path for it’s next joint meeting on April 6, where it’s expected lawmakers will focus on a proposal that would put higher taxes for the rich before voters in 2018.
Before a ballot question on whether to tax incomes of over one million dollars an extra 4 percent can appear on the 1018 ballot, it needs to be approved by the Legislature this year and again in 2017 or '18. Once the voter initiative is assured a spot on the ballot after parliamentary hoops and another round of signature-gathering, expect costly campaigns to be waged by partisans for and against the proposal.
Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition of left-leaning organizations spearheading the effort to get the tax change into the constitution, collected over 157,000 voter signatures this past fall and is expected to easily pass the other signature hurdles it faces.
The strong public support behind the tax measure, as well as the support of Senate President Stan Rosenberg, who chairs the convention, added to the pressure on lawmakers to move the ballot question forward.
The joint session of the House and Senate, called a constitutional convention, met for under three hours Wednesday but didn’t get through the nine other agenda items scheduled before the so-called “Fair Share” tax. The convention instead debated, and eventually rejected, a two other issues that have been building up like bong residue from the pipe dreams of ambitious lawmakers since 2007. A move to require a supermajority vote in order to tap the state Rainy Day Fund went down in flames, as did a call for an independent commission to determine political districts.
The next constitutional convention is set for April 6.
