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By Matt Murphy
State House News Service, Dec 15, 2015

... Under a separate law, the Massachusetts minimum wage rate will rise to $10 an hour on Jan. 1, and the Bay State will be tied with California for the nation's highest [state] minimum wage, according to the group Business for a Fair Minimum Wage. ...

Earlier this year, Senate leaders passed a proposal over objections from Republicans and some Democrats to pay for an expansion of the earned income tax credit for low-income families by freezing the income tax rate at 5.15 percent. The House rejected that proposal, and eventually legislative leaders and Gov. Baker reached a deal to pay for the EITC expansion without touching the income tax cut trigger law, allowing this latest decrease to occur. ...

Raise Up Massachusetts, the coalition behind last year's mandatory sick leave law, has proposed a change to the state constitution that would tax earnings above $1 million at a rate 4 percentage points higher than the state income tax. The change is being pitched as a way to address income inequality and generate new revenues for education and transportation infrastructure. The Department of Revenue estimates that the millionaires tax would generate roughly $1.9 billion in new income tax revenues to the state.

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