The November 2018 ballot in Massachusetts will likely be loaded up with three ballot initiatives backed by Raise Up Massachusetts, a coalition supported by labor unions. Here’s a look at three of the petition issues that were recently certified for the ballot by Attorney General Maura Healey.
Paid Family Leave
Under this proposal, the Boston Business Journal reported, Massachusetts workers would be eligible to receive up to 16 weeks of paid leave for needs related to a family member’s military service or to care for a new child or an ill or injured family member. Additionally, employees could get up to 26 weeks of paid leave to recover from their own serious illness or injury. Benefits would be capped at $1,000 per week and paid for by employers out of a state trust fund, similar to how unemployment insurance is handled. Businesses would be allowed to require workers to contribute up to half of the company’s required contribution.
Minimum Wage Hike
Under this measure, the Massachusetts minimum wage would rise $1 per year until it reaches $15 per hour by 2022. At that point, it would be tied to inflation and automatically increase with the cost of living.
Income Tax Surcharge
The constitutional amendment to impose a 4 percent surtax on incomes over $1 million is already on track for the ballot, but it is also supported by Raise Up Massachusetts. This proposal is especially harmful to small businesses, many of which are structured as pass-through entities, where the business income is filed and taxed at the owner’s personal income tax rate.
At this point, Raise Up Massachusetts must collect and file signatures from 64,750 registered voters by Dec. 6. Then the Legislature will take up the proposals and must enact them by May 2018. However, the initiative process is old hat for the union-backed group: They used it in the past to get the current earned sick leave law on the books, as well as used it as leverage to push the hike to the current minimum wage rate, State House News Service reported.
NFIB/MA will be fighting these initiatives. Christopher Carlozzi, NFIB/MA state director, told State House News Service and the Boston Business Journal that small businesses are still absorbing the cost of the 2014 laws and that these new proposals could have a devastating impact, especially when the cost of doing business is already so high in the state.
