Income surtax backers hope vote for before summer break
Along with another attempt to impose an additional tax on incomes over $1 million, state lawmakers could be asked whether Massachusetts should amend its constitution to allow no-excuse absentee voting and allow for language tweaks in the oath of office.
Ahead of an April 24 deadline, committees endorsed three proposals for amendments to the constitution. Those three -- the so-called "millionaire's tax," absentee voting, and oath language -- could come before the Legislature for a vote this session, one stage in a multi-year process of amending the constitution.
Lawmakers filed several proposed amendments this session. Committees gave adverse reports proposals to Sen. Adam Hinds amendment to restore voting rights to incarcerated felons, Rep. Thomas Golden's amendment to set term limits for judges, and Rep. Mindy Domb's amendment to make the constitution's language gender-neutral.
To advance to the next stage, an amendment must be placed on the Constitutional Convention Calendar by May 8.
Lawmakers must vote on legislative amendments to the constitution before the end of formal sessions for the term in July 2020, and, if it wins the support of at least 101 people in the 200-member Legislature, it would need to clear the body by the same threshold again the following term to eventually be put before voters.
Rep. James O'Day, a West Boylston Democrat who sponsored the income surtax amendment with Sen. Jason Lewis of Winchester, voiced optimism that their proposal could clear the vote threshold, saying "a ton of folks" were cosponsoring the plan. One hundred and fifteen other lawmakers signed on to O'Day's version of the bill.
"I think we're good," he told the News Service. "I think we have a good, strong argument that we're good, anyway."
Revenue generated by the tax would be dedicated to funding education and transportation. A similar effort, initiated by citizens petition, to put the tax before voters in 2018 was scuttled when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled it improperly mixed unrelated subjects. Legislatively proposed amendments do not face the same relatedness requirements as those launched through the petition process.
The first attempt at the 4 percent surtax passed the Legislature 135-57 in 2016 and 134-55 in 2017.
O'Day said he hoped a vote would be scheduled for next month. Lewis said he'd like to see it brought to the floor "in the next couple months."
"My hope would be that we could take a vote on it in a Constitutional Convention before the summer break in August," Lewis said.
A favorable committee report does not guarantee a vote at the Constitutional Convention, where lawmakers over the years have often opted against debating or voting on amendments.
The Election Laws Committee reported out a Rep. Michael Moran proposal that would bring no-excuse absentee voting to Massachusetts, where voters are currently allowed to cast absentee ballots in only limited circumstances, and the Judiciary Committee advanced a modified version of a Rep. Domb amendment dealing with oaths of office.
The amendment would allow a person to "affirm" an oath of office instead of "swearing" it, and to replace the words "So help me God" with "This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury" if they so choose.
Testifying before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month, Domb said the constitution currently allows only Quakers to opt against "swearing" their oath because of the word's religious implications. The first-term Amherst Democrat said she is not a Quaker but was "not really comfortable swearing," and had wanted to be able to affirm her oath earlier this year instead.
Giving the options of affirming oaths would be more inclusive of various religious and spiritual beliefs, Domb said.
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