Labor unions — SEIU, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO — are pushing a November 2018 ballot initiative that would raise the Massachusetts state income tax rate, currently a flat 5.15%, by four percentage points for taxpayers with earnings more than $1 million. The Boston Globe reports:
About 14,000 Massachusetts taxpayers reported taxable income of $1 million or more in 2013, the last year for which a breakdown is available. Many of them were clustered in Boston and wealthy suburbs such as Newton, Wellesley, and Weston.