4 20 22 Farmers Press Conference on Income Surtax Amendment Impacts скачать в хорошем качестве

4 20 22 Farmers Press Conference on Income Surtax Amendment Impacts

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance hosted a press conference via Zoom today with several Massachusetts farmers discussing the devastating impact that the proposed income surtax amendment will have on their operations and their abilities to continue producing for future generations. The proposed surtax would increase the income tax from 5% to 9%, representing an 80% increase, on income over $1M. The question will be a ballot question for the voters to decide this November. This press event was scheduled to coincide with Earth Day. These family-owned farmers produce a wide variety of food in the Commonwealth, with some families having begun their operations prior to the founding of the country. They represent over 850 years of heritage in Massachusetts agriculture, stretching from western Massachusetts to the Merrimack Valley, and all the way to the Cape. They include Ben Farnum of North Andover’s Boston Hill Farm (Founded 1740), Leo Cakounes of Harwich’s Cape Farm Supply and Cranberry Company (Founded 1999), Bob Beckwith of Granville’s Hilltown Pork (Founded 1980), Matt Fitzgerald of Methuen’s Mann Orchard (Founded 1877), Leon Ripley of Granville’s Maple Corner Farm (Founded 1840), Theresa Cohen of Oxford’s Oxford Farm (Founded 2018), Wayne Whittier of Sutton’s Whittier Farm (Founded 1945), and John Hornstra of Norwell’s Hornstra Farms (Founded in 1915). “The oldest business in Massachusetts is a family farm and the country’s oldest continuously run farm is based in Massachusetts. Despite this rich history, Massachusetts is an importer of food, so protecting our current agricultural businesses and promoting new agriculture should be a priority of the legislature. Unfortunately, the legislature’s proposed income surtax will have a negative impact on our family farmers and food produced in our state, as many file their taxes as pass-through entities that would be subject to this new tax hike, occasional sell land to reinvest into the family farm, or sell the farm all together as their retirement nest egg,” noted Paul Diego Craney, spokesman of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. Farming in Massachusetts and New England as a whole has grown increasingly difficult as higher taxes and increasingly burdensome regulations make local farms uncompetitive with national operations in the Midwest and elsewhere. In December of 2021, Horizon Organic, one of the country’s largest distributors of organic milk products announced that they would cease purchasing dairy from all New England farms. They cited the high cost of producing milk and transportation in New England as their chief reason. “No one thinks of farming as an affluent profession, yet the legislature’s grad tax will treat some of these family farms as affluent. Simply because of the way these farms and many other small businesses file their taxes, they will be treated like the affluent, when in reality this money goes directly back into maintaining and running their business. Adding another tax hike will only drive up the cost of agriculture and food production in Massachusetts. This tax will lead to unintended consequences for our state farmers. When Horizon Dairy canceled their contracts with 100 dairy farmers in New England, due to the high cost to produce and transport goods, it served as a clear warning to what happens when we over-tax our famers and their farms,” continued Craney.