Massachusetts Income Tax Rate Cut Initiative, Question 3 (1998)

The Massachusetts State Legislators Compensation Amendment, also known as Question 1, was an initiative that appeared on the November 3, 1998 ballot in Massachusetts, where it was approved.

Election results

Question 3 (Income Tax Rate Cut)
Result		Votes	Percentage
a Yes		1,395,599	72.1%
No		309,416	16.0%

Official results via: The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth

Text of measure

The language that appeared on the ballot:

This proposed law would change the state income tax rate on interest and dividend income, which was 12% as of September 1997, to whatever rate applies to Part B taxable income (such as wages and salaries), which was 5.95% as of September 1997. The change would take effect starting in tax year 2000.

Support

Supporters argued:

• The initiative would end "the 12% tax, the highest tax rate on personal income in the nation."
• The initiative would "relieve an unfair tax burden on people struggling to save."
• The initiative had the support of a wide range of groups, including the Taxpayers Foundation, the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, The Boston Globe, and the Boston Herald.

The majority of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means supported the initiative.

Opposition

Opponents argued:

• The initiative would benefit the wealth over the average person, specifically that "half the benefits would go to the richest five percent of taxpayers, and over a third would go to the richest one percent."
• The supporters studied even showed that incomes would fall, unfairly harming working families.
• "Investors already pay much lower taxes on capital gains than workers do on their wages."

See also

Suggest a link

• 1998 ballot measures
• Massachusetts 1998 ballot measures

External links

• 1998 Online Massachusetts Voter Guide
• 1998 Massachusetts Ballot Measures Election Results]
• National Conference of State Legislatures