On January 4, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation filed an Amicus Brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of a request for appeal by the plaintiff’s in the case 1A Auto v. Sullivan. 

The brief was written by Tad Heuer, partner at Foley Hoag in Boston, and is the most comprehensive study ever done on the union loophole.

On December 6th, 2018 the state office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF) held a public hearing on the future of the Union Loophole in Massachusetts.

What is the Union Loophole exactly? In Massachusetts, for-profit businesses cannot give money to political candidates, committees, and parties at all—not directly, and not indirectly through a political action committee (PAC). But unions—including unions from outside the state—can give up to $15,000 to a single candidate and can also create political action committees to give even more. That makes Massachusetts one of six states that ban businesses—but not unions—from giving to parties, committees, and candidates.

We applaud the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court on the wisdom of its decision to strike down the Proposition 80 ballot question that sought to remove our state constitution’s protections from unequal taxation. Massachusetts is one of only eight states that have a flat state income tax, which continues to keep our state economically competitive.

The voters of the Commonwealth wisely rejected graduated tax income proposals five times in the last fifty years. On its own merits, the idea of a graduated tax income tax is a consistently unpopular idea to the residents of Massachusetts. In trying to make the idea more popular by earmarking money for special interests, the radical proponents of this legislation ultimately sowed their own defeat.

With the long looming threat of this economic nightmare now passed, the hard working citizens of Massachusetts can finally breath a sign of relief. Our economy will continue to grow, unfettered by the economic malaise and constant budget woes that continue to plague our only neighbor to adopt such a progressive tax scheme: Connecticut.

The Fiscal Alliance Foundation was proud to have played a part in challenging the constitutionality of this ballot question before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. We will continue to pursue our mission of educating the citizenry of our state and increasing awareness about the public benefits to be derived from greater fiscal responsibility, transparency, and accountability in government.