PROVIDENCE – In a move as familiar as snow in winter and robins in spring, Rhode Island’s progressive lawmakers have renewed the call to raise taxes on the rich with the goal of raising upwards of $100 million for their many priorities, including free breakfasts and lunches for all students – and the preservation of RIPTA.
They renewed the call on Tuesday at a State House news conference, hosted by the Working Families Party, that focused in part on Rep. Karen Alzate’s bill to impose a 3% surchange on personal taxable income above $1 million.
What would the higher taxes pay for?
Alzate’s expectation: The surtax would raise $126 million that her bill would earmark for:
- Affordable, reliable and high-quality child care and early-learning programs
- High-quality public education
- Affordable public colleges and universities
- Repair and maintenance of roads and bridges
- Public transportation
Calling her proposal “a matter of social justice”,” Alzate said a higher tax on millionaires would “redistribute wealth and bridge the growing gap between the rich and the rest of our society, especially our most vulnerable islanders.”