Legislators introduced Fair Share for Rhode Island package of bills to offset federal cuts

"...vulnerable people are being pushed off their healthcare, while the richest people in the country enjoy new giveaways..."

“My colleagues and I have diverse backgrounds, and we represent a wide range of districts, but together we are united in the belief that working people, not corporate interests, should be at the center of every decision we make here at the State House,” said Representative Brandon Potter in the Rhode Island State House Library on Thursday. “For many years, our fight has been over what and who are at the heart of the Democratic Party. It’s been a fight inspired by the pressures that working people are facing every day throughout our state and throughout our entire country, and by a belief that we, as Democrats, should prioritize them over the ultra-wealthy. Since the new Trump Administration, that fight has become a five-alarm fire for working people both here in Rhode Island and across our nation.”

Representative Potter continued:

“Just three weeks ago, healthcare got more expensive for Rhode Islanders because Trump and Republicans in Congress deliberately chose to give $1 trillion in tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and pay for it by raising the cost of healthcare for working people and some of the most vulnerable among us. Make no mistake, those federal tax cuts have a direct effect on what happens here in Rhode Island. Those tax cuts for the top 1% stand to cost tens of thousands of vulnerable Rhode Islanders their health benefits, food assistance, and more.

“I say this at a time when, for years, the highest income households in Rhode Island, those in the top 1%, have paid a smaller share of their income and pay less in local taxes than any other income group while benefiting from repeated federal tax cuts. That means we have a tax system where multimillionaires pay a smaller share of their income and taxes than nurses, teachers, janitors, and all working-class people who are already overburdened with the rising costs of groceries, rent, utilities, health insurance, and everything else.

“We need to meet this moment. We need to deliver what voters are demanding from their Democratic leaders: real results that make life more affordable and restore a basic level of fairness to our economy, because the affordability crisis we hear so much about did not happen by accident. It’s a predictable outcome of an economy that has been rigged against working people for the benefit of the top 1%, where wages don’t keep up, prices rise, and the people with the most keep getting tax breaks.

“But at a time when families are choosing between groceries and rent, when seniors are skipping prescriptions, and vulnerable people are being pushed off their healthcare, while the richest people in the country enjoy new giveaways, we cannot just shrug and say that is the way it is in a state controlled by Democrats. We have an opportunity to demonstrate what it means to actually fight for working people and deliver on our values in a way that this moment calls for.

“The Governor’s budget proposal to tax incomes over $1 million at a higher rate is a strong step forward, but it does not go far enough to meet the needs of working people in Rhode Island. So today, I’m proud to stand with my colleagues and the Rhode Island Working Families Party to introduce the Fair Share for Rhode Island package, a set of three bills that will require the wealthiest people in our state to finally pay their fair share in taxes with a rate comparable to what the rest of us pay.”

The Fair Share for Rhode Island Package:

The Fair Share for Rhode Island package is a set of bills that require the highest earners in the state to pay a comparable share of their income in taxes to the rest of us. It will rebalance the state’s upside-down tax system, protect the state against Trump cuts, and fund critical services like public education, healthcare, childcare, and public transportation. Together, the package will raise more than $650 million annually and only affect top earners and people with extreme wealth.

Here’s the video:

The Fair Share for Rhode Island Package will:

• Ensure that the wealthiest 1% of Rhode Islanders pay their fair share. For years, the highest-income households in Rhode Island — those in the top one percent — have paid a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than any other income group. They’ve also benefited from repeated federal tax cuts: 83 percent of the benefits from the first Trump tax cut, passed in 2017 and renewed last year, went to the top 1%.

• Generate over $650 million in revenue: If enacted, the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package will generate over $3 billion over five years. By contrast, if Rhode Island had required the wealthiest to pay their fair share for the last decade, we would have $6.5 billion more to spend on schools, healthcare, transportation, and more.

• Protect against federal cuts: Trump’s policies are increasing the costs of basic needs like health care, food, and utilities for Rhode Islanders. Without additional revenue like that generated by the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package to offset these cuts from H.R.1:

  • Approximately 34,000 Rhode Islanders will lose healthcare;

  • An additional 41,400 Rhode Islanders will see their healthcare premiums double on average (for example, a 55-year-old earning nearly $63,000 per year in Rhode Island will see their annual premium increase by at least $3,510).

  • 10,000 people in Rhode Island are at immediate risk of losing some of their SNAP benefits, including parents with children ages 14 and older, older workers, veterans, those experiencing homelessness, and youth aging out of foster care; and,

  • Electricity costs in Rhode Island will increase by an average of $100 per year starting in 2026.

• Fund critical services like education, housing, childcare, healthcare, SNAP, and public transit: Rhode Island’s commitment to a decent quality of life for residents is threatened. Even before Trump’s tax cuts, public services in Rhode Island were underfunded. Lawmakers have been largely unable to deliver on state-level commitments to fully funded, high-quality schools, hospitals, childcare and eldercare centers, food assistance programs, and public transportation infrastructure in every community. Examples of critical funding gaps the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package can help the state backfill:

  • RIPTA (Rhode Island Public Transit Authority) has a $32-million deficit, resulting in reduced service across the system, increased wait times, and cancelled routes on weekends.

  • Just this year, Rhode Island will lose nearly $30 million in federal education funding halted by the Trump Administration — a cut that could devastate afterschool programs, multilingual learning, and adult education in Rhode Island.

  • Childcare: Restore at least $46 million in state funding for child care cut during the Great Recession to support the availability of quality child care, and help more families pay for it.

• Support local Rhode Island-based businesses by boosting the economy, reducing the state’s reliance on working people’s tax revenue to fund public programs, and allowing those saved dollars to be reinvested into the local economy. It’s also a step toward ensuring a more level playing field, as a central element of Trump’s tax plans is to let big corporations pay less in taxes, amass wealth, and reduce competition.

• Make Rhode Island more affordable by generating revenue for public services (education, healthcare, infrastructure) that benefit everyone, especially lower-income families, thus reducing individual costs. It can also curb wealth concentration, prevent excessive price increases in housing and college, and shift resources more efficiently throughout the economy by funding investments that create middle-class consumers and jobs, thereby increasing overall economic stability and affordability.

“Before I get started on the details, here’s a little of my story and why this type of legislation matters for me and community members across Rhode Island who look like me and have stories like mine,” said State Senator Tiara Mack. “I grew up with a mom who’s a small-business owner and a public school teacher, and my stepfather was an electrician with the IBEW. We often had to make hard decisions when I was growing up about paying rent, keeping food on the table, or covering necessary healthcare for my family. Growing up, things were hard, and as a child of a working family, I know exactly the sacrifices that many community members have to make. In these unaffordable times, people all across Rhode Island are spending more than 50% on their income on rent, sacrificing their jobs and careers to take care of their children because of the childcare crisis, and many people, especially as a result of HR 1, the big ugly billionaire handout bill, we have people in our country who are now deciding not to have healthcare because it’s too expensive for them to live and afford healthcare.”

Senator Mack continued:

“This bill would apply a 1% tax on Rhode Islanders who file a worldwide financial asset above $25 million. (I don’t know about anyone in this room, but I do not have $25 million.) This would affect a fraction of the 1%, roughly 1/14th of the wealthiest, 1% of Rhode Islanders. And because wealth is so concentrated amongst this very small percentage, this small tax on the richest Rhode Islanders will raise $3 billion over the next 10 years, money we can use for things like reimbursing local schools to provide the cost of universal school meals, something that I was a beneficiary of in elementary, middle, and high school; helping thousands of low-income families access childcare and financial assistance to help pay for high quality childcare; helping cities and towns have more money to pave their streets, invest in infrastructure, install new traffic signals, and build sidewalks; and so much more.

“The Governor’s proposal is a good start, but it leaves so much desperately needed money on the table. The Governor’s proposal generates approximately $130 million per year, while the Fair Share for the Rhode Island package will generate over $650 million a year - critical funds needed for Rhode Island families. Right now, there are too many loopholes in the Governor’s proposal.

“Consider two people: an heir in Newport with $500 million in yachts, jewelry, and fine art, and a teacher with no savings in the bank. If both the heir and the teacher bring home $50,000 in labor income next year, they would pay the exact same amount in federal taxes, despite their vastly different circumstances. Increasing income taxes won’t address this problem. The choice is simple: We can’t have working families struggling to make ends meet while the wealth gap in this country continues to widen at the expense of the working class. Passing the Fair Share for Rhode Island package will prioritize the working families across our state who build our economy and keep Rhode Island running.

“We need to start talking about nurses, teachers, and school children who can’t concentrate because their stomachs are empty. The Fair Share for Rhode Island package will make our state more affordable, competitive, and equitable, and help build a stronger economy that works for all of us, because we know what it means to build a vibrant economy: a well-educated workforce, good public schools, transit and road networks that help people get to their jobs and to the market, communities with affordable housing options so that people at every single income level, no matter what type of work they have, has access to dignified housing, and families that make enough money to ensure that the next generation is better off than the ones before it.”

If Rhode Island had passed revenue legislation in 2025, we could have:

• Funded SNAP by helping backfill the $29 million spent by the state to provide critical aid to the 145,000 people in Rhode Island who didn’t receive scheduled SNAP benefits. Currently, the state has only a $6 million workaround plan, and half of SNAP recipients won’t have access to monthly grocery money. Even those who do might see lower amounts than usual.

• Stopped budget cuts to critical services. Rhode Island is staring down an estimated $300 million deficit for the upcoming fiscal year 2027 — a calculation that does not account for the massive federal fallout already gripping Rhode Island. Tens of thousands of vulnerable residents stand to lose access to health benefits, food assistance, or both. State costs to carry out these major program overhauls are projected to rise as tax revenue shrinks. And hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen federal funding for higher education, public health and scientific research, and energy programs may never be revived.

• Advanced economic and racial justice. In Rhode Island, 83 percent of single Latino adults without children earn less than the income required to meet basic needs, as do 78 percent of Black, 67 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander, and 65 percent of White single adults.

“Like Tiara, I have a story that starts with a working-class family and includes not having a safe place to live for a portion of my childhood,” said State Senator Meghan Kallman. “It also includes some of the benefits that functional institutions can confer. I graduated from a public high school, got a scholarship to a top-notch college, and then got two more scholarships for grad school. I’m an example of what can happen when the systems work for people.”

Senator Kallman continued:

“Today, we’re introducing bills designed to bolster the systems that work for people. As I said, I went to grad school, and I’m now a professional nerd, and so I’m going to nerd out on you for a second: What does massive wealth inequality have to do with the unhinged and illicit ICE raids that are going on in Minnesota, Maine and elsewhere?

“The answer is actually quite a lot. At the peak of the Gilded Age in 1910, the richest 10,000 in the population owned wealth equal to 4% of national income. That was in 1910. Today is 2026, and now the richest 10,000th owns 12%. That is to say, currently, U.S. billionaire oligarchs are richer than the original robber barons. This is not a good look. It’s wildly unethical on its face, and as the rich get richer, life gets worse for the rest of us.

“Here’s where I get nerdy: The political science research is clear, and it shows that economic inequality is one of the biggest drivers and strongest predictors of when and where democracy erodes, even in wealthy, longstanding democracies such as the United States. Countries with a lot of economic inequality, like ours, are currently up to seven times more likely to experience democratic erosion or backsliding than countries with higher levels of equality.

“This is a big issue as far as funding all of the important priorities my colleagues are representing here. It’s also a huge issue for the future of our country and our democratic institutions. That is why I’m one of the very proud sponsors of the digital ads tax.

“A digital ads tax would be a significant and growing source of revenue for the state. It taxes the revenue of corporate monopolies, think Meta and X, that make money from digital ads and extract information from us to do so. In contrast to many traditional forms of media advertising, which are taxed under traditional business laws, digital advertising revenues seem to escape such taxation, so you have the Metas of the world getting very wealthy.

“Under the current proposal, only businesses with gross income of $1 million or more annually from digital advertising services would be affected. We’re aiming for the big ones, and that’s important because the corporations that make millions by collecting our personal data and selling it to digital advertisers are the same corporations that have created a haven for dangerous misinformation and hate speech that has fueled the backsliding in our democracy.

“As my colleagues have said, we as lawmakers have a choice to make. We can continue to invest in systems that threaten our social and political security, our social and political justice, and our wellbeing, or we can be bold enough to chart a new way forward, which means showing people a better future. That future is possible if we fight for it.

“That future could include something like a system where buses run on the weekends, which we haven’t seen very consistently in Rhode Island for, I don’t know, the last year. It could include a world where our children’s children can continue to visit Rhode Island’s beautiful beaches because we are invested in protecting our coastlines from erosion. It could include a future where no one goes to bed hungry. It could include a future in which everyone goes to bed in a home. It could include a future where Head Start is fully funded, where everybody who wants a preschool seat has one, and where people can go to the doctor without going bankrupt. We can have all of these things. These are choices that we make.

“The revenue from the tax that I am proposing is specifically allocated to do that. In fact, it’s spread out across a bunch of social programs and other critical programs that make Rhode Island more affordable for everyone. The federal government has shown us what can happen when we build a political and economic system that caters to the super wealthy. That’s not a future that I want. They’ve told us up and down that we ought to reward wealth, work harder, and somehow things will be all right, but Rhode Islanders know better, and together we can do better.”

What is the Fair Share For Rhode Island Package?

The Fair Share for Rhode Island Package is a set of four bills introduced during the 2026 legislative session. The package includes:

• A 1% tax ‘wealth tax’ on a Rhode Island filer’s worldwide financial assets above $25 million, applying only to financial intangible assets such as stocks, bonds, options, and annuities, and not including the value of houses or other real estate property, or nonfinancial intangible assets like patents or brand recognition.

• A three percent surtax applied to taxable income above approximately $640,000.

• A four percent “wealth proceeds tax” which equalizes the tax treatment of earned and unearned income by taxing “passive income” such as capital gains, dividends, interest, and annuities (qualified annuities are pre-tax with annual limits), along with certain kinds of rents, royalties, and (inactive) business income. It does not tax income from active business participation or from retirement income, such as Social Security, pensions, 401(k)s, and IRAs.

• A digital ads tax on the revenue of corporate monopolies like Meta and X that make money from digital ads, applied only to businesses with $1 million in annual gross revenue from digital advertising services in Rhode Island, would require them to file the new digital advertising tax return.

How much revenue would the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package generate?

The Fair Share Package would generate more than $650 million a year, or more than $3 billion over the next five years. The revenue generated per bill is as follows:

• Wealth tax: $300 million per year

• Surtax: $200 million per year

• Wealth proceeds tax: $144.4 million per year

• Digital ads tax: We are still calculating the fiscal notes.

Who will pay?

• Wealth tax: Research from the State Revenue Alliance shows that 243 individuals in Rhode Island have more than $50 million in wealth

• Surtax: an estimated 5,700 filers

• Wealth proceeds tax: 3.8 percent of filers, or about 21,000 filers. The majority of these filers make over $1 million per income bracket: 16 percent (3,360) of the 21,000 filers make $200k-$500k per year; 16.8 percent (or 3,528) make $500k-$1 million, and 66 percent (or 13,860) make over $1 million per year in this type of income.

• Digital ads tax: Only businesses with $1 million in annual gross revenue from digital advertising services in Rhode Island would be required to file the new digital advertising tax return.

“This is the seventh year that Senator Melissa Murray and I have been putting in this legislation, and I am so thankful to all of my colleagues who continue to get creative and put in bills that will raise revenue for us,” said Representative Karen Alzate. “As you all know, this is not business as usual. Our state is facing a crisis, and working families are feeling it every single day. I live in Pawtucket. I represent Central Falls as well, and I can’t tell you that I’m blessed if I lose my apartment. I cannot afford an apartment in my district, either in Pawtucket or Central Falls.”

Representative Alzate continued:

“I’m one person. I can’t imagine what a family of four or a five would do, or a single parent. Rhode Island is staring down a budget deficit, while Washington continues to cut billions from SNAP and Medicaid to give more tax breaks to the wealthy. That means 14,000 Rhode Islanders could lose food assistance. It also means that 50,000 Rhode Islanders could lose their healthcare, and when families lose support, our hospitals suffer. They’re already suffering.

“We know that our grocery stores and small businesses suffer. Understand that small businesses will suffer. In Rhode Island, the Revenue for Rhode Island Coalition is fighting for a fair tax on the top 1%. This policy would raise approximately $200 million each year and be invested back into our communities. This money is for healthcare, childcare, public schools, public transportation, seniors, and Rhode Islanders.

“I want to be clear about what this legislation does because I think the facts matter, and I will continue to talk about the facts because I’m not sure we are all listening. This tax will apply to anyone in Rhode Island making over $640,000 a year, roughly 6,000 Rhode Islanders, not small businesses, not working families, and not the middle class. This is about helping small businesses, working families, and the middle class.

“Right now, the lowest-income Rhode Islanders pay a higher share of their income. We know that this is not fair. If we are serious about making Rhode Island affordable, we have to be bold. We have to stop being afraid. A tax on the top 1% raises just around $67 million more each year, and our communities need this revenue.

“Other states have done this, particularly Massachusetts, and they are winning. They have the tax base and the revenue to give more to their communities, have a healthier education system, and, to my heartbreak, lure bigger businesses into their states. There is no mass exodus - we know this - just stronger communities.

“This proposal is popular. Rhode Islanders want and need this. It’s fair, and it works. I hope you’ll join me in making sure that we pass this legislation because it’s been seven years. I will continue to advocate for this until we pass it and we make a fair tax law for all Rhode Islanders.”

Who won’t pay?

The overwhelming majority of Rhode Islanders won’t pay a penny more, but we will all benefit from investments in public schools, healthcare, transportation, childcare, and housing that contribute to economic growth.

How does the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package compare to Governor McKee’s ‘millionaire’s tax’?

This is a good start from the Governor, but it leaves too much money on the table. The Governor’s proposal generates approximately $130 million per year, while the Fair Share for Rhode Island Package generates over $650 million. The Governor’s proposal neglects to tax the wealthiest Rhode Islanders in a way that genuinely reflects their ability to pay, leaving billions of dollars on the table, and leaving many loopholes open in the tax code. The Governor’s proposal still leaves too many nurses and teachers paying more of their income in taxes than the wealthiest 1%.

An example of another loophole: under the Governor’s proposal, if both an heir in Newport with $500 million in yachts, jewelry, and fine art, and a teacher with no savings in the bank, bring home $50,000 in labor income next year, they would pay the same amount in federal taxes, despite their vastly different circumstances. Just increasing income taxes won’t address this problem.

Why should high-income individuals and households pay more?

For years, the highest-income households in Rhode Island — those in the top 1% — have paid a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than any other income group. They’ve also benefited from repeated federal tax cuts – 83 percent of the benefits of the 2017 tax bill went to the top 1%.

Using the wealth tax as an example, research from the State Revenue Alliance shows that only 243 individuals in Rhode Island have more than $50 million in wealth. But those 243 people have more than $47 billion in collective wealth, and that wealth has grown by 143% since 2010.

How does it compare to other revenue sources?

The other major ways we fund transportation, such as sales and gas taxes and public transit fares, are “regressive” — lower-income people pay a larger share of their income than higher-income people. The other major way we fund public education, through local property taxes, is inequitable — high-income communities have more property wealth. They can afford to spend more on their schools than low-income communities. The Fair Share For Rhode Island Package is an economically progressive and equitable source of much-needed revenue.

“I’m here because we have to protect Rhode Islanders,” said Representative Teresa Tanzi. “We are experiencing a never-ending parade of draconian cuts that the federal government continues to impose on our residents, and this is not stopping. It feels almost like every single day there’s a new attack on working families in our state and in our nation.”

Representative Tanzi continued:

“I was at the pharmacy yesterday, and it’s the beginning of the year. We’ve all had this experience where we haven’t met our deductibles on anything, whether it’s going to a doctor or going to a pharmacy.

“I had to pay $300 for two prescriptions. I almost had a heart attack, and while I was standing in an incredibly long line, I noticed I wasn’t the only one having that experience. We are struggling. It doesn’t matter where you are on the economic scale. We have to make this a fairer system, and people who have the most have to start giving the most and supporting the rest of the state.

“We know that it is people who power a strong economy, not some hope or promise that a trickle-down from tax cuts to the wealthy will build a sustainable economy. What my colleagues and I are proposing is that Rhode Island move to a system that rewards the very people who power our economy, rather than the wealthy who benefit from the loopholes we’ve left in our tax code.

“The Governor’s proposal moves us towards this system, but it falls short because it doesn’t do what we need to do in 2026. We need to tax the wealthiest Rhode Islanders in a way that genuinely reflects their ability to pay. Instead, we leave billions of dollars on the table and continue to unfairly preserve the preferential tax treatment of passive income in our tax code.

“The wealth-proceeds tax that Senator Kallman and I are introducing will help end the preferential treatment the wealthy hide behind and generate almost $150 million in revenue per year. This wealth-proceeds tax applies to income that can only be generated by wealth, such as interest, dividends, and capital gains, and it applies exclusively to high-income households. Recent federal actions have doubled down on concentrating wealth in the hands of millionaires and billionaires, while simultaneously shifting massive costs onto states through cuts to Medicaid, Obamacare, and SNAP.

“With a wealth-proceeds tax, we would ensure the ultra wealthy pay their fair share of taxes and raise new revenues to invest in the building blocks of our communities, like affordable healthcare, food assistance, public education, and more. As lawmakers, we have close ties to the people in our districts, and we know the human cost of these cuts. They’re threatening the lives and livelihoods of working people across Rhode Island.

“Federal-level cuts are impacting people’s lives without raising revenue, and without backfilling these cuts, people’s lives will be lost; make no mistake about that. Without additional revenue, like that generated by our Fair Share for Rhode Island package to offset these cuts that were put on us by the HR 1, approximately 34,000 Rhode Islanders would lose healthcare.

“I’m hearing about it already, and I’m sure you all are too. People have signed up for the health exchange, not knowing whether the subsidies will be available, and they aren’t able to make those payments. An additional 41,000 Rhode Islanders will see their healthcare premiums double. On average, 10,000 people in Rhode Island are at immediate risk of losing SNAP benefits, including parents with children ages 14 and older, older workers, veterans, those experiencing homelessness, and youth aging out of our foster care system. Electricity costs in Rhode Island will increase by an average of $100 per year starting in 2026. And if we keep getting these stop-work orders on our offshore wind projects, we know that those numbers will be significantly higher.

“We know that budgets are moral documents, but what lays our morals bare is how we pay for our budgets: by cutting to the bone services that we and our neighbors and we depend on or by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share so that we have more of the funding we need to help improve the lives of everyone who lives here?

“We’re talking about fairness and protecting our communities. Everyone here is committed to fighting for the Fair Share for Rhode Island package and to unrigging our tax system so we can all benefit. Each of the proposals you heard about today is targeted, fair, and forward-thinking, a true reflection of our modern economy. It asks those who have benefited the most to help sustain the state and its people, those who made their success possible. Today, we call on the Governor and all of our colleagues in both chambers to show up for working people, and take a quick look around. You can see all the different reasons that we’re here, and there’s a story behind each and every one of them.”

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