By Hannah Reale, June 18, 2026
Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a proposal to cut the state’s income tax from 5% to 4% will not appear on the ballot this fall.
Justices took issue with the summary written by the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. The Massachusetts constitution charges her office with providing “a fair, concise summary” to be printed on the ballot.
But the summary, justices found, was inaccurate: the proposed cut, if implemented as written, would lower the long-term tax rate on capital gains. Campbell’s office had written that it would not.
“The summary’s contrary statement is not a minor imprecision. It is significantly misleading and likely to influence voters,” Justice Serge Georges Jr. wrote for the court.
“We give some deference to the Attorney General’s judgment because, in preparing a summary, she ‘must inevitably form her own understanding of the meaning of the language in the initiative and its operation and effect,’” the justices later wrote, citing a 2014 decision. “Deference, however, is not abdication.”
MassBudget Reference:
A January analysis by the Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center found the ballot question, if passed, would cut state revenues by $5 billion. They also argued it would disproportionately benefit the state’s wealthiest residents: The top 1% of income-earners would get an average tax break of over $30,000, while the lowest-income 20% would get an average cut of $44.
