Brookline Newcomer

Tax the rich

It took a while to notice Brookline's financial problems. When we first moved here the town's high-income reputation distracted me, as did the sky-high real estate prices, the fancy stores, and the well-regarded schools and other town services. But it's finally sunk in: Despite all the money in many residents' pockets, the town's own finances are on shaky ground. I'd like to see the next Town Meeting broaden current revenue discussions and plan for a fundamentally better future. My proposal: Tax the rich. Hey, that's where the money is.

The town's financial problems appear in many guises. My family lives in Brookline for the schools, but because of school budget restrictions my daughter's kindergarten ended at noon last year, and she won't learn a foreign language in the early grades. Another example: The town's revenue mania routinely distorts debates over development projects like the Coolidge Corner hotel and the extension of 10 Brookline Place over the MBTA station, making irrelevant these projects' inherent merits and faults.

The lack of revenue makes it difficult to think beyond traditional budget items like schools and fire stations. But with more money, we could do better. We could make our affordable housing program meaningful rather than pitiful. We could provide rent subsidies to independent store owners, helping them compete with deep-pocket corporate chains. We could create a local shuttle system and cut down on traffic.

We could, in other words, use our imaginations and live up to Brookline's self-image. Instead of begging the state to send more money our way, instead of overdeveloping every square inch of available space, instead of letting services slide with the convenient excuse that we have no choice, let's fix this problem ourselves.

Now, I'm no tax expert. Much of what I'm brainstorming about would take some legislative maneuvering or constitutional tinkering to recreate Brookline as a model of progressive taxation. But let's brainstorm together.

For a start, we could implement a steeply progressive town income tax. Low-income households would pay no tax, moderate income residents an easily affordable half a percent or so. Only past $100,000 a year would residents begin to pay perhaps 1%. As income increases, so would the percentage, with a much higher percentage for the truly wealthy. This could be administered on a postcard-sized form, using the income line from the federal or state tax form.

Also appealing is a one-time tax on wealth, proposed recently by people as different as Donald Trump and Robert Reich. This would be harder to administer, and might require a constitutional amendment. But it seems perfectly reasonable to levy a steep tax on multi-millionaires (do we have any billionaires in town?). If they choose to leave town instead, at least property costs might go down.

I know some people think we already pay too much in taxes. That's certainly true for people near the bottom of the income distribution, who pay Social Security taxes even when they don't earn enough to pay income tax. But it's not true at the higher end of the middle and at the top. The stock market goes up, the media extol the economic boom, people retire at laughably low ages with unconscionably high fortunes, but the reality for half the population remains very different. Despite the boom, the poor and working class do worse and everyone's public realm deteriorates.

As an aside, some friends of mine who just moved from Canada to Australia were tempted to move to Brookline instead, but among other factors they preferred a country that provides frills like decent health care for all. They could think of only one personal financial consideration on which the US came out ahead--our shockingly low tax rate.

There are other sources of money beyond individuals. How about all those chain stores rampaging through Coolidge Corner? Surely our town attorneys could figure out a way to soak the corporations that own them. If the chains abandoned Brookline, so much the better.

Let's get more money from the state when we can. But let's not count on it. And let's not make believe we have no choice.

Newcomer Columns List