Campaign For New Tax On High Earners Touts Widespread Support
Seventy three percent of Massachusetts residents said they support adding a 4% surtax to the state s highest earners.
Photo by Pixabay/Public Domain. Illustration by Emily Judem/ WGBH News.
Nearly three quarters of Massachusetts residents support a new 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million, according to a poll commissioned by the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
The results are being touted by a campaign to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund education and transportation projects. The public already strongly supports investments in transportation and public education and strongly supports the idea that the wealthiest among us should pay more to make those critical investments, said Andrew Farnitano, a spokesman for Raise Up Massachusetts, which wants a constitutional amendment allowing the tax to go before voters next year.
Poll of Mass. Conservatives Shows Baker May Face A Challenge From The Right
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker speaks during the panel Our Children, Our Future: Rethinking Child Welfare, at the National Governor Association 2019 winter meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019.
Jose Luis Magana / AP
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Mike Deehan on Morning Edition | March 2, 2021
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has enjoyed bulletproof approval ratings for the last six years. But a new Republican-focused poll shows what could be some cracks in his support, at least among his own party. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with GBH News State House reporter Mike Deehan about the poll results and what they could mean for Baker in a potential 2022 reelection campaign. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
THE HOUSE AND SENATE
Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ and senators’ votes on roll calls from the week of Dec. 28, 2020, to Jan. 1, 2021.
OVERRIDE BAKER’S VETO OF BILL TO INCREASE ABORTION ACCESS (H 5179)
House 107-50, Senate 32-8, overrode Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of a bill that would allow abortions after 24 weeks in the case of lethal fetal anomalies and lower the age from 18 to 16 at which a minor can choose to have an abortion without parental or judicial consent.
“I strongly support a woman’s right to access reproductive health care, and many provisions of this bill,” said Baker in a letter that accompanied his veto. “I support, for example, the provision that would enable a woman to access an abortion where the child would not survive after birth, and the modifications to the judicial bypass process that make it more accessible to minors who are unable to obtain the consent of a parent or guardian. I also support the changes that elimina