Revenue Fairness and Inequality

Many of our low- and fixed-income residents struggle with paying taxes and fees in Newton, which can make our community unwelcoming. But we cannot afford to reduce total revenues needed for vital services that make this community work. How do we reconcile these needs?

As your Ward Councilor and a member of the City Council’s Finance Committee and Programs & Services Committee, I have…

• Led the push for emergency resources to those affected by the pandemic, including rental assistance

• Worked to promote an equitable focus access to programs, services, and Census enumeration for Ward 5’s minority communities, especially immigrant communities with English as a second language, many of whom are renters in areas with environmental health risks like highways

• Supported identifying and adopting any viable strategies to shift revenue collection (fees and taxes) from those who can least afford it over to those who can afford to pay a fairer share. Newton is home to more than one thousand millionaires, according to federal data, but of course not all residents are affluent, and we cannot make policy on any assumption that everyone can afford the same tax and fee burden

• Pushed for further tax relief for low-income seniors

• Advocated for the 11% of Newton schoolchildren (pre-pandemic) who were living in poverty and the 1 in 8 Newton households (pre-pandemic) who were making do with less than $25,000 in annual income