Background on Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts Initiative
The string of "tax revolts" that were in 1978 with Howard Jarvis and Proposition 13 in California played out in Massachusetts with the formation of Barbara Anderson's Citizens for Limited Taxation. Claiming to represent a "revolt of people against the arrogance of government," anti-tax advocates succeeded in capitalizing on public opposition to high taxation and corruption in public spending to pass a series of ballot initiatives aimed at tax reduction. Proposition 2-1/2 in1980 capped property tax increases at 2.5% of fair market value; Question Three in 1986 removed an income tax surcharge and capped tax receipts that had been in place for a decade, and Question 4 in 2000 rolled back the state income tax rate to an even 5%.
Countering the lobbying and organizing efforts of Citizens for Limited Taxation, the Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts (TEAM) was formed in 1987 as a coalition of tax reformers made up government groups, civic and business leaders, human services advocates, unions, and others who shared the conviction that fair taxation and quality services must go hand-in-hand and who opposed extreme tax reduction for the dire impact it would have on state budgets and support for state programs. The Executive Director of TEAM, James Braude, debated Anderson throughout the state during the late 1980s to provide a counterweight to her anti-tax
