David Segal Calls for a Special Session of the General Assembly in Order to Reform Tax Changes
Providence RI –Today Rhode Islanders woke up to the disturbing headline, “Tax overhaul means wealthiest in Rhode Island will pay less.” David Segal is calling on the leadership of the General Assembly to hold a special session, and to go back to work for Rhode Island’s working families to ensure that fairness is restored.
Segal says, “I am furious that the tax policy writers gave members false data when the legislation came before us. We rely on their data as we make key policy decisions, and they represented that relative to the fully phased in flat tax, the change in the tax code would be revenue-neutral, yielding a modest decrease in taxes on working families, and a modest increase on the wealthy.
He continued, “The new data makes it clear that the tax change will further reduce state revenues at a critical juncture, when schools, public works departments, and social service agencies are desperate for funds, and as cities raise regressive property taxes on working families to make up the difference. For the last several years, Rhode Islanders and small business owners have been forced to pay ever higher property taxes to help make up for tax breaks for the wealthiest. The new information that has come to light shows that the tax overhaul continues this trend of shifting away from income taxes on the wealthiest and towards higher property taxes for our working families and small businesses.”
“I’ve repeatedly voted against budget articles that have made our tax system more regressive, decreased revenues, and decreased education funding and funding for cities and towns — and therefor leading to property tax increases on working families. In fact, I helped organize to block passage of the Fiscal 2009 supplemental budget until millions of dollars in funding to cities was restored, and the budget writers agreed to make our capital gains tax more progressive.”
“If presented with accurate data at the time of the vote, I absolutely would have opposed the tax change, and aggressively urged my colleagues to join me. It is time hold a special session, correct our mistake, and do right by ordinary Rhode Islanders, by changing the new law so the wealthy will pay their fair share,” said Segal.
Before passing the bill, projections showed that a group of thirty taxpayers with federal adjusted gross incomes of $10 million or more were meant to end up paying about $5.22 million more as a group in their personal income taxes under the proposed new system. However, after the General Assembly approved this tax-overhaul bill, striking new data was presented. Instead of paying $5.22 million more in tax, The Department of Revenue has reported that this incredibly wealthy group will ending paying about $560,000 less in taxes than under the old policy. The numbers originally given to General Assembly were incredibly misleading, making the bill that was passed not the tax-overhaul it was supposed to be. Instead of bringing a tax-overhaul that benefits ordinary Rhode Islanders, what has passed is another, unnecessary tax break for the wealthy.