The people of Massachusetts have dodged a missile on a technicality.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Monday that a referendum asking voters to approve a 4-percentage-point income tax surcharge on incomes of $1 million or more violates the state's constitution because it links three items that aren't related: income tax rate, transportation, and public education.
A proposed referendum asking voters to approve an income surtax on millionaires won't go to the ballot this year, because the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that it violates the state constitution.
The court ruled 5-2 on Monday that the ballot question, which sought a 4-percentage-point surtax on individual incomes of $1,000,000 or higher to benefit public education and transportation, violates the Massachusetts Constitution's requirement that ballot questions contain items "which are related or which are mutually dependent."
