The Legislature increased taxes, promising this would be temporary and the income tax rate would quickly return to 5 percent. Since then, state spending has doubled. Huge surpluses help fund the Big Dig and new programs. But the rate is still 5.85 percent. Taxpayers can invest in their family's future or favorite charity.
Lower taxes protect our state economy.
Still, the best reason to vote yes is to make politicians keep their promise. We need a healthy, well-educated workforce to be competitive in today's global economy. Question 4 would make it harder to reduce class size, expand early childhood education, fix crumbling schools, or increase access to health care. A strong economy has produced a budget surplus in recent years. But we should spend that surplus responsibly, on important priorities like education and health care rather than on a big tax cut for the wealthy.