Massachusetts passed a 4% millionaire's tax last year. Now every public school student is going to get free lunch. | Business Insider México | Noticias pensadas para ti
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About $1 billion gathered from the new Massachusetts income tax will be used to provide all public school students in the state with free school breakfast and lunch.Mara Auster/Digital First Media/Boulder Daily Camera via Getty ImagesMassachusetts passed a 4% tax on people who make more than $1 million per year.Revenue from the new income tax is being used to give kids in the state free lunch and breakfast at school.Massachusetts is the eighth state to start free lunches since a pandemic-era federal program expired.Students in Massachusetts will get free lunch and breakfast at school thanks to a new 4% tax put on people who earn more than $1 million.Massachusetts voters passed a constitutional amendment that went into effect at the beginning of 2023 to put an additional 4% state income tax on people who make more than $1 million per year.Appropriation of the proceeds from the tax is subject to the state legislature, but lawmakers are expected to use it for public education and infrastructure repairs, according to local Boston television station WCVB.State House News Service, an independently owned news wire, reported that $1 billion of the state's record $56.2 billion fiscal budget for 2024 came from the state's new 4% tax on millionaires. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed the budget on Wednesday, making Massachusetts the eighth state to adopt a free school lunch plan since federal free school lunches which started during the COVID-19 pandemic ended.The outlet reported that a portion of the $1 billion gathered from the new income tax will be used to provide all public school students in Massachusetts with free breakfast and lunch. Some of the money will also be allocated to help undocumented immigrants who went to high school in Massachusetts qualify for lower in-state tuition rates, according to SHNS.According to WCVB, state lawmakers agreed to put $523 million of revenue from the new tax toward education and put $477 million aside for transportation.In February, President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to pass his billionaires' tax proposal, which would impose a minimum 20% tax on households with a net worth of more than $100 million.Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said the proposal would target "big corporations and the wealthiest Americans," while protecting people who make less than $400,000 per year from increased taxes, according to CNBC.Biden also signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in February, which includes a 15% minimum tax on corporations earning more than $1 billion.Read the original article on Business Insider

Students in Massachusetts will get free lunch and breakfast at school thanks to a new 4% tax put on people who earn more than $1 million.

  • Gsus4@feddit.nl
    129·
    1 year ago

    It’s easier to sell a tax hike if you know exactly where it’s going :)

    • theragu40@lemmy.world
      103·
      1 year ago

      Unless you’re Waukesha, Wisconsin, where they specifically voted to stop giving kids handouts (i.e. free lunch). Because, you know, kids should work for their food or something instead of using their energy to learn.

      • Gsus4@feddit.nl
        471·
        1 year ago

        probably the same people that say abortion is murdering kids…

        • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
          16·
          1 year ago

          I mean, cheap labor has to come from somewhere… Where do you find empoverished people to exploit if you don’t force births?

            • richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one
              1·
              1 year ago

              I’ll raise you the most voted pre-candidate to president in my country, who said that people should be able to sell their own organs if they want to. (He plans to worsen things for workers in such a way that they would need to.)

        • theragu40@lemmy.world
          9·
          1 year ago

          Of course it is. But you know, kids lives only really matter up until they are born. At that point the kids, their parents and their livelihoods and happiness…all that can fuck right off.

      • affiliate@lemmy.world
        301·
        1 year ago

        kids just don’t want to work anymore these days. they’re too busy with their avocados and ipad games. meanwhile the child unemployment rates are at historical highs. won’t someone think of the economy?

      • MostlyBirds@lemmy.world
        15·
        1 year ago

        Waukesha County is by far the most conservative in the state, and has been playing a massive role in destroying our state’s democratic process for a few decades now.

        Another fun fact about it is that they’ve been trying for years to glom onto the Lake Michigan watershed, which, geographically, it is not a part of. They want to straight up take our water, which they do not need, in exchange for nothing whatsoever of any real value.

        • theragu40@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Yeah it’s a cesspool that way.

          I live in the mke area and when looking for housing Waukesha was a tempting area because of how much more house you can get for the money, but I just don’t think I can handle living there. Not to mention I want my kids going to schools in a community that gives a shit about kids and their education.