In its first TV ad launching Monday, the coalition against the proposed 4% surtax on income exceeding $1 million banks on small business owners, teachers, a lobsterman and a cranberry farmer to drive home the message that now isn’t the time to raise taxes.
“Politicians are pushing a tax hike on the November ballot,” Leo Cakounes, a Harwich cranberry grower, tells viewers. “That makes no sense.”
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Paid for by the Coalition to Stop the Tax Hike Amendment, the ad is part of a multi-million dollar campaign targeting Ballot Question 1 — which asks whether voters to approve a change to the constitution to bump the 5% income tax rate to 9% on all earnings over $1 million. The 30-second spot, which comes a few weeks after proponents of the so-called “millionaires tax” launched their first ad, makes the case that the tax would undercut the middle class: hitting homeowners, farmers or restaurant owners making one-time sales.
The ad also features Richard Schmalensee, retired professor emeritus of economics at MIT, arguing the proposal comes as “our state already has the biggest budget surplus in history.”
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