Teacher Union Bosses and Big Labor Governor Push For Massive Tax Hike on Middle Class in Massachusetts
Top bosses of the National Education Association-affiliated Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) union are determined to foist a $1.9 billion tax hike on hardworking people across the Bay State. And they are enlisting the help of union-label Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to make sure they get what they want.
This past weekend, rank-and-file teachers received an MTA-sponsored, and forced union dues-funded, robocall from Mr. Patrick exhorting them to turn up the pressure on state legislators to support the governor’s tax-increase package. (See the news story linked below for more information.)
Mr. Patrick admits that his complex proposal, which raises the state’s universal income tax rate from 5.25% to 6.25% and eliminates dozens of itemized deductions, but offsets the impact in part by cutting sales taxes and increasing personal exemptions, will raise the overall burden on roughly 50% of taxpayers.
Big Labor bosses routinely espouse higher taxes, but usually pretend for propaganda purposes to favor higher taxes only on the “wealthy.” The ongoing lobbying blitz by the MTA teacher union hierarchy and other union kingpins for the Patrick tax hike on the Bay State’s middle class is just the latest example demonstrating that this is simply not so. Union officials favor higher taxes on people at all income levels to bankroll the growth of heavily unionized government payrolls. And they really don’t mind if private-sector employees and employers suffer as a consequence:
Gov. Deval Patrick seems to be willing to pitch his tax [hike] . . . proposal by any means necessary, even resorting to recorded phone messages that he admittedly hates.
Teachers and educators over the weekend received a robocall from Patrick asking them for their help in swaying lawmakers to embrace the need for $1.9 billion in new revenue . . . .
Patrick pitches tax plan in robocall for teachers union