MTA delegates approve $2M to defeat tax, budget-cutting initiatives

MTA Annual Meeting delegates voted this weekend to commit $2 million of union dues to support the campaign to defeat two ballot initiatives that would cut billions of dollars from the state budget and threaten funding for public education, health care, transportation and other essential public services.

In 2022, MTA members played a central role in winning passage of the Fair Share Amendment, which funds positive investments, including free community college, free regional buses, improvements to vocational school and campus buildings, fulfilling school funding through the Student Opportunity Act and improvements to the T and to roads and bridges across Massachusetts.   

“We will not let the billionaires undermine our progress through their effort to blackmail the Legislature into giving tax cuts to the super-rich,” said MTA President Max Page. “We are fervent in our urge that the Legislature cut no deal with the extortionists. Give them something this year and they will be back next year, and the year after, and the year after that.”

“We are fervent in our urge that the Legislature cut no deal with the extortionists. Give them something this year and they will be back next year, and the year after, and the year after that.” – MTA President Max Page

The funds will support the campaign being run by the Protect Massachusetts’ Future ballot committee, a coalition of labor and community organizations formed to oppose the ballot initiatives backed by the Massachusetts High Technology Council and allied business groups. Other unions, including SEIU, have already committed over $1 million to the ballot fight if the initiatives are not dropped by the proponents or removed by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.

The ballot initiatives, if approved by voters, would reduce state revenues by more than $5 billion annually and lead to major cuts to public services and local aid.

A new poll of Massachusetts voters released Wednesday by the MassINC Polling Group found that when voters learn the facts about the income tax cut ballot initiative, they oppose it.

The poll informed voters that “experts estimate that lowering the income tax would cost the state government $5 billion a year, forcing deep cuts to education, health care and aid to cities and towns. On average, the wealthiest 1 percent would get back more than $30,000 on their taxes, while the bottom 80 percent would only get back a little more than $500.” After hearing those basic facts, support for the initiative dropped from 66 percent to 40 percent, with 50 percent of respondents planning to vote no.

“That’s a dramatic shift,” said Richard Parr, senior research director of MassINC Polling Group. “Someone has to do the work to get that message out there.”

More than 1,500 Annual Meeting delegates overwhelmingly voted to provide the funds needed to win at the ballot, Page said. “So that the Legislature and governor know that, as in the past, we and our fellow unions will defend our state at the ballot. We know that when voters learn of the terrible cuts to our beloved public schools and colleges, to our roads and bridges, to our health care and affordable housing, they will reject these terrible proposals put forward by the millionaires and their dark money organizations.”