By Christian M. Wade, February 3, 2026
A coalition of union leaders and community activists are suing to block a proposed cut to the state’s personal income tax rate.
A proposal by the Massachusetts High Technology Council, Pioneer Institute and other groups, which is inching toward the Nov. 3 ballot, would reduce the personal income tax rate from 5% to 4% over three years, which backers say would save individual taxpayers an estimated $3,000 during that period.
But a lawsuit filed by a group of union leaders and community activists claims the wording of signature petitions to qualify for the ballot were “misleading and deceptive” because it didn’t mention the cuts would cover all three categories of income taxes, including capital gains taxes paid by businesses.
In the 32-page complaint, the plaintiffs claim the cuts would “overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest one percent of Massachusetts taxpayers through the reduction of taxes on long-term capital gains, interest, dividends, salaries, wages and other income.”
They said the proposal is also “deeply regressive” and “would trigger massive state budget cuts, effectively taking from the poor and middle class, and benefiting the wealthy, to the detriment of the citizens of Massachusetts who rely upon publicly funded education, health care, public safety, transportation, and other services.”
MassBudget Reference:
A report released last week by the left-leaning Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center estimated that cutting the income tax rate would mean an estimated $5 billion less revenue for the state government.
The group said the rate cut would deliver “unequal relief” for Massachusetts households, with middle- and low-income taxpayers seeing only “modest benefits” while those with the highest incomes would see “large windfalls” in tax savings.
“By delivering large windfalls to the state’s most affluent and only small or modest benefits to everyone else, the tax cut would widen Massachusetts’ already large inequalities of income and wealth,” they wrote in the report.
