Legislators once again introduce the "millionaire's tax"
"The gap between the rich and poor continues to widen due to decades of policies that have helped the rich get richer..."
An op-ed from Representative Karen Alzate and Senator Melissa Murray:
For the last several years, we have introduced legislation critical to funding the needs of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable and struggling residents. And quite sadly, this segment of Rhode Islanders continues to grow at an alarming rate yearly.
We are talking about families fighting to put enough food on the table daily. We are talking about seniors having to forego necessary medical treatment and medicine. We are talking about parents, children, and veterans without a safe, dry, and warm place to spend their nights. We can’t forget about our stressed students going without proper mental healthcare and our small businesses that are closing their doors at an ever-quickening pace, either. Everyday essentials, like food and childcare, cost more and more while our residents’ wages have stagnated and failed to keep up. Our infrastructure is crumbling around us, and the price tag to keep Rhode Island functioning continues to soar.
But, while these problems worsen for an ever-increasing number of Rhode Islanders, we continue to give large corporate subsidies and tax breaks to our wealthiest businesses and residents.
Something must change.
This is why we will once again introduce legislation to enact a “millionaires tax” in Rhode Island. This new tax will help us uplift our schools, invest in our children’s education and futures, fund the rehabilitation of our crumbling infrastructure, and provide the social safety nets that too many of our residents rely upon to survive.
As we now see in Massachusetts, the voter-approved “millionaires’ tax” has generated $1.8 billion over the fiscal year for the State’s residents. This staggering amount of money will do so much for the people of Massachusetts, and it shows what is possible if the rich pay their fair share in taxes.
With these results over the border, now is the time for Rhode Island to do the same. Rhode Islanders across the State are struggling daily, and our State’s much-needed services are already being stretched thin due to lack of funding.
The gap between the rich and poor continues to widen due to decades of policies that have helped the rich get richer. We can’t keep balancing budgets by cutting vital social service programs that our most vulnerable citizens desperately need.
Contrary to what some say, this legislation will not make Rhode Island less competitive. Instead, it will give us the flexibility to fund critical programs and services properly on an ongoing basis. It will help put our State on a more solid financial footing going forward, ensuring a more equitable tax structure that works for every Rhode Islander and making Rhode Island more competitive and stronger.
The bigger the gap between rich and poor, the worse the economy works. FACT. Another fact. Higher taxes on the rich are associated with faster economic growth and less poverty. Low taxes on the rich means the rich get rich faster and we get poorer. And the infrastructure falls apart. I keep hoping that more of the members of the political class will figure this out and start to include it in the budget.
Although I lived here for a year before deciding that yes, for the first time in my life I was choosing where to live instead of going where someone (father, husband, me) had a job, I really did want to move to RI.
Nowadays I keep wondering if I had known in advance about the dismal state of health care, the neglect of more and more public buildings, the dismal state of RIPTA, the "I know a guy" approach to public works, would I have chosen somewhere else? Massachusetts, for example, where I lived for 31 years (and can no longer afford)?
Probably not, but I keep thinking that people here are really nice, the corruption is probably more obvious because the state is so small (I keep reminding myself that at one point, at least, 3 consecutive governors of IL were in jail), and I like our representatives in Congress. I just wish the overall infrastruture were in better shape and in better hands.