Vote no on ballot question 5

Dear Waltham Times,

I am deeply concerned about what passing ballot question #5 will mean for majority of everyday Waltham residents.

Massachusetts is facing an affordability crisis, and Question 5 would make it even worse. 

The corporate backers of Question 5 want you to think that their effort is about “affordability.” However, the wealthy investors and CEOs behind this ballot question know what it would actually do: slash funding for classrooms, hospitals, and first responders across the state and give those very investors and CEOs some extra money in their pocket. 

Question 5 imposes a stricter revenue cap on the state, meaning that it will be harder for the state to invest and harder for the state to respond to economic downturns. With a stricter revenue cap, working families would pay the price through reduced public services and fewer investments in their communities. Child care could get more expensive, health care less accessible, and higher education out of reach for more Bay Staters. With steep federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid and more looming next year, the cuts Question 5 could trigger will be dire. These federal cuts put more pressure on the Commonwealth to make up the difference to protect some of our most vulnerable neighbors. 

Proponents of the ballot question have touted that it could deliver an “average tax cut” of about $1,300 per year. But the mathematical average amount is starkly different from the benefit that the vast majority of taxpayers would see.

In fact, middle- and low-income households would see very modest benefits, while those with the highest incomes would receive large windfalls. According to an analysis conducted with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the highest-income 1 percent of households (with average incomes of $3.9 million) would receive, on average, a tax break of $31,600 annually. Meanwhile the bottom 80 percent of households by income – the vast majority of the state’s population, all with incomes below $187,500 – would see an average break of only $534. The lowest income 20 percent of households would receive an average tax cut of only $44 a year.

Massachusetts is at our best when we invest in the foundations of our shared prosperity. Question 5 wants to pull that foundation out from under us. Please join me in voting NO.

Thank you,

Kam Maali