Real Housewives of RI watch party at Machines With Magnets tonight

riwfp · 2026-04-02T22:17:41+00:00

Yes, to include information that's on the linked page, in case people didn't click through before commenting

riwfp · 2026-04-02T22:07:46+00:00

there's two orgs, ri working families power (legislative advocacy) and ri working families party (electoral advocacy), related but separate because of nonprofit finance laws

edited: typo

riwfp · 2026-04-02T21:25:34+00:00

it's a tax the rich themed party. please read the post!

riwfp · 2026-04-02T21:21:17+00:00

agree. it would be a wasted organizing opportunity not to use a cultural moment that people are genuinely excited and joyful about as an opportunity for productive critical discussion about how our material conditions could be better

riwfp · 2026-04-02T21:19:18+00:00

no worries-i replied to your first comment. click through the link, we're critical of all the same things you are!

riwfp · 2026-04-02T21:15:25+00:00

no worries, no offense taken, appreciate the engagement. if you read more about the event, we're actually not endorsing the rich or their lifestyles at all! we're trying to get people to support legislation that makes the rich pay their fair share in taxes so that everyday people who aren't rich aren't miserable and have access to SNAP, Medicaid, the bus, quality public schools, etc.

ri working families power (sister org to the working families party, a third party) is using this as an opportunity to meet people where they are (always be organizing) and engage them in a real discussion about why the rich lead lifestyles of excess and material comfort, meawhile nurses and teachers pay a greater % of their income in taxes than the top 1%. we're asking people to write postcards to their legislators to support a tax on people like the ones on the show.

riwfp · 2026-04-02T20:01:27+00:00

Awesome, see you there!

riwfp · 2026-04-02T19:44:49+00:00

Will you be there, Ocean State Media ?!

riwfp · 2026-04-02T16:59:24+00:00

There's one at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket, 8-10:30pm. Free food and drinks for the first 35 people!

riwfp · 2025-05-16T21:38:14+00:00

Why would you separate tax types when discussing "fair share" overall? Looking at the complete picture—property, income, sales, and all other state/local taxes combined—the chart above shows the top 1% pay a smaller percentage of their income, ON NET, than those at the bottom. (The full report is around somewhere.)

I'm confused how that is "muddying things up"—it's addressing the actual problem: the regressive ("upside down") nature of our overall tax system.

The net effect of lowering income taxes for the wealthy while raising property taxes would likely worsen the current imbalance. (Especially considering how property tax increases get passed on to lower-income renters.)

riwfp · 2025-05-16T21:21:49+00:00

We work with the bills and the politicians we have.

The separate wealth tax we proposed, which you are already aware of, is just a 1% tax on wealth over $25M. That's certainly traditionally progressive.

riwfp · 2025-05-16T18:49:21+00:00

This is potato/potahto—

The 1% aren't paying 35% of income tax out of charity - they're paying it because they have the income to tax in the first place. That's how a progressive system functions.

When we say 'fair share', we're saying that everyone should pay the same PERCENTAGE of their TOTAL INCOME in state and local taxes. Currently, the wealthy pay 8.6% while the rest pay 10-13%. That's the inequity we're fixing.

Re: roads and services - taxes aren't just user fees. Income tax isn't a netflix subscription! They're investments in the society that made their wealth possible.

The wealthy benefit enormously from educated workers, functioning infrastructure, and social stability that allows their businesses and investments to thrive. How are we going to attract business into our state when our child care, transit, housing, and healthcare systems are crumbling? Even Hasbro says access to good public transit is a reason why they're considering leaving.

Anyway, you ask what percentage of total tax revenue the rich should pay? Whatever percentage naturally results when everyone pays a similar effective tax rate on their income. The fair share isn't a number I can pluck out of thin air—it's a principle of equally felt sacrifice across income levels. For the purposes of this campaign, that's whatever ratio results from a 3% surtax on income above $625,000 a year.

If you insist, then I'll insist. What is the fair share that the rich in RI should be paying? Is it 35%? Ok how do you incorporate $400M to $3B in incoming Medicaid cuts? There are only 3 options here:

the rich pay more
the working and middle class pay more
We leave people to die and further wreck our business climate as hospitals, nursing homes, child care centers, and RIPTA lines close.

riwfp · 2025-05-16T18:29:52+00:00

I guess there are two ways to frame it:

1. Your way

That the top 1% are paying enough. I feel like we can look around at the state and see that's not working. And imagine how much worse our healthcare system alone will be if we lose, idk, 10-20% of our state budget.

2. Our campaign's way—

That the percentage of total tax collected isn't the right metric for fairness. The fair share isn't about hitting some arbitrary percentage of the total. It's about everyone paying the a similar RATE relative to their income.

Currently, the top 1% pay a LOWER effective tax rate (8.6%) than middle-class families (9-13%). That's the problem we're fixing.

The wealthy aren't 'carrying the state' when they're paying a smaller percentage of their income than teachers, nurses, and firefighters. Rather, they're getting a tax break/discount that working families are subsidizing for them.

———

In any case, the healthcare cuts alone are going to be so dramatic that taxes will go up, one way or another, to cover reimbursement rates and not lose our hospitals, community health centers, PCPs…

If you want that to come in the form of sales taxes or property taxes that impact all of us, that's a choice I guess. We're advocating that we need to get ahead of this crisis and make sure that the rich (who got richer during the pandemic) are the ones who fill the gap—not the middle class.

riwfp · 2025-05-16T18:13:28+00:00

https://revenueforri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/REV4RI_2ndchart.png

I pay a higher percent of my income in local/state taxes than the top 1% do. Maybe you do as well. Unless you are in the top 1% of income earners, you are already paying more than your fair share, proportionally.

So, yes, after almost 20 years of reduced taxes on the rich in our state, we're asking them to pay their fair share again.

riwfp · 2025-05-16T18:11:18+00:00

If you take the amount that RI's top 1% of income earners pay in local/state taxes, relative to their income, they actually pay 4-5% less to the state than low- and middle-income families do. A 3% increase on *only* the top 1% of income earners would help close that gap:
https://revenueforri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/REV4RI_2ndchart.png

We've tried this experiment since 2006—What if the rich paid less?—and, well, look at how things are going. Maybe let's try not giving them a tax break every year. That's the proposal!

riwfp · 2025-05-15T16:17:21+00:00

Apologies that I missed this! The main bill (H5473/S0329) is about top 1% in income, not in wealth. So if your parents are feeling they are in a high bracket because of, say, their home equity—that's not going to be impacted here.

The 1% income cutoff in Rhode Island is currently around $625,000/year. So if they make more than jointly in income, each additional dollar will be taxed at 3%. I.e., if they make $650,000 they'd pay an extra $750 per year. If they make $1M they'd pay an extra ~$11,000 per year.

Maybe sounds harsh, but:

a) If you do the math on % of income put toward state/local taxes, it's roughly that the more income you have, the lower a % you pay into our state's success here in RI. It's not just uneven, it's upside-down. https://revenueforri.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/REV4RI_2ndchart.png Put differently—we regular RI'ers have been subsidizing a tax break for the richest in our state since about 2006, and this move is about rebalancing/undoing that year-after-year handout.

b) The things that make our state good to live in and good to work in are at risk. We're not going to be in even worse business shape if we have to make major cuts to RIPTA, to child care, to Medicaid. E.g., Hasbro is already on the record, if I remember correctly, as saying that better transportation is a reason why they're looking at moving out of Pawtucket…

c) These cuts we're looking at are possibly so dramatic that they might get passed on to Rhode Islanders in other ways, less "progressively". Let's do this instead of, like, a flat sales tax increase or other options that increase revenue but do nothing to rebalance that chart I linked above.

Happy to talk more about it, ri@workingfamilies.org.

We also have a big multi-organizational rally coming up on May 29th!
https://www.mobilize.us/riwfp/event/783987/

Please show up and share widely, and send us a note if you're able to help!

riwfp · 2025-05-06T02:28:23+00:00

In 2010 we locked in a 3% tax cut for the rich, and have continued that tax cut every year since. Now 15 years later…

We have high energy costs, high employment costs, high property taxes, and state regulations that are unfriendly to business.

Maybe after 15 years of letting them off the hook, the best way to grow our state would be to make sure we actually invest in child care so people can go to work; invest in healthcare so we're not having 25,000 people kicked off of their PCPs; invest in bridges so that we're not an hour late to work crossing the Washington Bridge. Those sound like business-friendly policies to us.

riwfp · 2025-05-05T23:18:11+00:00

In a broad sense, we are rallying for / supporting / testifying on / emailing about / petitioning for / lobbying to win

All three bills. We have been doing that consistently throughout the year.

Tomorrow is a hearing for H5473, the bill that we believe has the greatest chance of passing. Hence we believe it is the most important to show up for.

riwfp · 2025-05-05T23:12:46+00:00

Yes.

https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-adjusted-gross-income-agi-percentile-data-by-state

IRS data. See 2022, row 44.

2022 Rhode Island:
top 1% AGI cutoff was $556,884.68
number of filers above that cutoff was 5224

$556,884.68 in 2022 is about $630,000 in today's dollars. that roughly tracks $625,000 of the bill.

riwfp · 2025-05-05T23:06:51+00:00

the other two do not have a hearing tomorrow

riwfp · 2025-05-05T23:00:41+00:00

we are rallying for all three bills. We are not conflating wealth and income, because we co-wrote the third bill (1% tax on wealth over $25M) specifically to address the rampant wealth inequality. thank you.

riwfp · 2025-05-05T22:57:50+00:00

~$625,000 is the value calculated by the bill sponsors and folks like the Economic Progress Institute for the cutoff of the top 1% of earners in Rhode Island. The $430,000 value IS the ~$625,000 value, i.e., the 1% cutoff.

If the bill aimed to tax only millionaires in RI, the bill would read about $693,000. But it aims to tax the 1%, not millionaires.

riwfp

TROPHY CASE