Invest in Our Recovery Organizational Sign-On Statement

Building Our Campaign Coalition

Thank you for joining the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition in this incredibly important and urgent call to action. Massachusetts' elected officials face a choice: they can choose to enact harmful budget cuts that worsen racial inequities and further shift the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic onto working people, OR they can choose to raise new revenue by taxing profitable corporations and their wealthy shareholders, and invest in the public services we need to support an equitable recovery.

Legislators have several options to raise revenue from profitable corporations and their wealthy shareholders. Raising the current 8.0% tax rate on corporate profits to the pre-2009 rate of 9.5% could generate $450 million to $525 million annually from profitable businesses. Conforming to federal law for the taxation of domestic profits that are shifted overseas (known as GILTI, or ‘Global Intangible Low Taxed Income’) could generate $200 - $400 million annually. Each percentage point increase from the current 5.0% rate that investors pay on unearned income could generate $400 to $500 million annually.

Please read our petition below, and if your organization is ready to add your name to our public sign-on letter, please fill out the form with the best contact information for your organization. We ask that you share with us how you would like to be involved in this campaign moving forward and also what particular public services you're fighting to defend and/or expand.

For more information on the campaign please visit http://www.raiseupma.org/invest or contact Jeron Mariani at Jeron@field-first.com
Sponsored by
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Raise Up Massachusetts
Boston, MA

To: Building Our Campaign Coalition
From: [Your Name]

Fighting COVID-19, relieving the economic damage it is causing for Massachusetts workers, families, and businesses, and tackling the racial inequities that exist throughout our society – these urgent priorities all require state spending on education, healthcare, transportation, housing, safety net programs, emergency paid sick time, and other critical public services. But as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local budget shortfalls are already causing budget cuts, layoffs, and furloughs across the Commonwealth.

State budget cuts will only worsen the effects of the economic downturn, impair our recovery, and further harm the people and communities who are already disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially people of color, immigrants, and low-income communities. Our state lawmakers have a choice: we can let deep budget cuts drive us deeper into a recession that deepens racial inequities, or we can invest in public services that improve public health, grow our economy, and reduce racial inequities.

Throughout this economic crisis, many large corporations continue to generate enormous profits that flow overwhelmingly to the wealthiest shareholders. And for years, these large corporations have used loopholes, tax breaks, and weak corporate disclosure laws to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. If federal aid and the state’s rainy day fund are not sufficient to make up for the drop in state revenue, profitable corporations and their shareholders should pay more to support our economic recovery.

By increasing the tax rate on corporate profits, conforming to federal law for the taxation of domestic profits that are shifted overseas (known as GILTI, or ‘Global Intangible Low Taxed Income’), and increasing the tax rate that investors pay on unearned income, Massachusetts can raise significant new revenue from profitable corporations and their shareholders, avoid destructive budget cuts, and instead, invest in the areas of the state budget necessary for an equitable recovery.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call on Massachusetts legislators to raise significant new revenue from profitable corporations and their shareholders before making any budget cuts that would hurt our recovery.