The welfare-industrial complex has a very simple theory about why they’re finally going to pass the graduated income tax in Massachusetts next year: They believe that after 60 years, they have at last succeeded in dumbing down the state electorate to the point that a majority will actually vote against their own best interests — to impoverish themselves.
Sadly, the hacks are probably correct.
This time around, the soak-the-middle-class scheme has been rebranded as a “millionaires tax,” because supposedly only taxpayers who will have their state income taxes jacked up from 5% to 9% a year are those making over a million dollars a year.
And the extra billions, which will only come from people making a lot more money than you, will go to really worthy projects, like “infrastructure” and education — “for the children,” don’t you know.
Wink wink, nudge nudge.
If you actually believe any of this, you probably still think that Elizabeth Warren is a Cherokee princess, that Dr. Anthony Fauci knows what he’s talking about, that Hunter Biden’s laptop was hacked by the Russians, and that the FBI and the Mass. State Police are on the level …
That ignorance is what the hackerama is banking on. They think at least 50%-plus one of the state’s voters are in fact that feeble-minded. And the evidence backs them up.
The non-working classes have been diligently attempting to impose this graduated-income tax on the commonwealth since 1962. Consider the declining results for the productive classes.
In 1962, the same year that a Massachusetts native, JFK, pushed through a federal tax cut by pointing out that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” his home-state constituents rejected the proposed state tax increase, 83-17.
In 1968 the hacks tried again — 70% voted thumbs down.
In 1972, even as Massachusetts was the only state to vote for acid, amnesty and abortion, 67% said no new taxes.
In 1976, the payroll patriots tried again. No — 73%.
In 1994 — the taxpaying majority (64.6%) once more voted no.
In 2018, the hackerama tried to put the Trojan horse back on the ballot via some back-door maneuver. But the Supreme Judicial Court, hardly a bulwark against lunacy of any sort, told Beacon Hill to forget about it.
For those of you keeping score at home, that makes the hackerama 0-6. But like an antibiotic-resistant STD, the graduated-income tax is baaaaaaack again, one legislative vote away from being back on the ballot in 2022.
The Pioneer Institute put out a new study last week, stressing the obvious: “’Millionaires’ tax’ wouldn’t just hit the mega-rich.’ ”
But is anyone paying attention anymore? That’s the problem.
Of course, should the hacks finally win on their seventh try, we will be told that the new, higher tax rate is “settled law,” and should never, ever be tampered with again by anything so unseemly as a repeal effort.
And even if the electorate did eventually vote to repeal, the legislature would probably ignore it. Remember Mike Dukakis’ “temporary” income tax increase of 1989? By 2000, the voters repealed the “temporary” law in a landslide, 60-40, but the rate didn’t go back down to 5% until 30 years after its “temporary” enactment.
Then there were the tolls on the turnpike. They were going to come down as soon as the bonds that were sold to build it were paid off — in 1988. Pinky promise — no more tolls on I-90 as of Jan. 1, 1989.
How’s that one working out for you, MetroWest?
Once the income tax rate is increased from 5% to 9% for all those evil millionaires, guess what happens next.
The supply of Massachusetts millionaires, never robust to begin with, will fail instantly. A lot of them will get their taxable income under seven figures, but most will just decamp to Free America — Florida, New Hampshire, etc. As a matter of fact, a lot of them already have.
The Cult of the Mask is just a precursor of the police state Charlie Parker et al. have in mind for all of us. Maskachusetts Uber Alles!
This exodus of millionaires, or at least tax avoidance on steroids, has happened in every single jurisdiction where this heist has been attempted. Tax revenues in fact decline, and the pols say, not even that sheepishly, gee, I guess we miscalculated, so now we’re going to have to impose the “millionaires tax” on … guess who?
If you’ve always dreamed of being a millionaire, just vote for the “millionaires tax,” because by 2024 at the latest, you will indeed be a millionaire — at least for Massachusetts tax purposes. Once the graduated income tax is on the books, they can pick off everybody who works for a living, one income quintile at a time.
There’s an old saying: “Don’t tax you, don’t tax me. Tax that guy behind the tree.”
In Maskachusetts in 2023, that guy behind the tree will run away. Then the tree itself will be chopped down. Then anyone who can’t run away will be chopped down, and fed into an economic wood chipper.
That is the one promise the hacks will keep — guaranteed.