Also at the State House today: tax equity event

What’s an understaffed progressive news website to do?

There’s marriage equality in the Senate Judiciary Committee, marijuana legalization at Brown and – rounding out the trifecta of local progressive issues – a briefing on a bill that would tax the rich in room 211 of the State House.

Tax equity advocates, including labor leaders, municipal leaders, Providence public school students, small business owners, economists and others, will gather to testify in support of bill S527, which would create a 2% income tax increase on Rhode Islanders making over $250,000.

The proposed tax increase will add an estimated $66 million in revenue to the state, which may be used to return money to cities and towns to lower our property taxes, fund public programs and help our schools and students. In the last 17 years, tax cuts for Rhode Island’s wealthy families have failed to stop the state’s rising unemployment rate, proving that tax cuts do not create jobs.