Massachusetts Voter Table in the News: The Millionaires Tax

MVTs Executive Director, Shanique Rodriguez, was recently quoted in several articles regarding the Fair Share Amendment that passed in 2022 following a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies and State Revenue Alliance. The Fair Share Amendment, referred to as the Millionaire’s Tax, generates billions of dollars of revenue for public education and transportation across Massachusetts. The report found that the number of individuals in Massachusetts with at least $50 million in total wealth increased 35.2% from 2022 to 2024.

Massachusetts home to more millionaires despite new surtax

Journalist: Michael P. Norton

Source: 22 News WWLP.com, April 28, 2028

The report measures accumulated wealth rather than annual income, but surtax supporters say they’re certain that some share of the “ultrawealthy” captured in the report are paying the income surtax.

“This is further evidence that multimillionaires are not fleeing the state in response to the new tax — they are staying here, paying more in taxes, and enjoying the stronger transportation and public education systems that Fair Share dollars are funding,” said Shanique Rodriguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table and a member of the Raise Up Massachusetts Steering Committee. Read the full article here.

So are millionaires really fleeing Mass.? A new report says they’re staying — and paying

Journalist: John L. Micek

Source: MassLive, April 28, 2025

“As Fair Share revenue continues to surpass expectations, this is further evidence that multi-millionaires are not fleeing the state in response to the new tax – they are staying here, paying more in taxes, and enjoying the stronger transportation and public education systems that Fair Share dollars are funding,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

“As income and wealth inequality continue to escalate nationally and in Massachusetts, the Fair Share Amendment is making our state tax system fairer and strengthening our entire economy by funding new investments in transportation and public education,” she continued. Read the full article here.

They helped pass the Massachusetts ‘millionaires tax.’ Now they want to take their strategy national.

Journalist: Tal Kopan

Source: Boston Globe, April 20, 2025

Shanique Rodriguez, now the executive director of the civil rights and economic justice advocacy group Massachusetts Voters Table, led the “millionaires tax” campaign effort to message and organize in Black and Indigenous communities and other communities of color. She said a key piece of a pro-tax messaging strategy needs to be casting taxes as good for individuals.

“People look at taxes as if it‘s a punishment in your paycheck,” Rodriguez said. “If you want to have free public education, the only way to pay for that is if we all put a little money into that. If you want free hospitals, the only way we pay for that is if we put a little money into that.” Read the full article here.

To schedule an interview with Shanique Rodriguez, please email info@mavotertable.org.

Massachusetts Voter Table in the News: The Shifting Federal Landscape

Shanique Rodriguez, MVTs Executive Director, spoke on The Boston Foundation’s May 5, 2025 panel “The Shifting Federal Landscape: Massachusetts Nonprofits Raise the Alarm” alongside Mary Skelton Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Philanthropy Massachusetts and Diane Yentel, President & Chief Executive Officer, National Council of Nonprofits. The panel was moderated by Jim Klocke, Chief Executive Officer, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.

During the panel, they discussed a shifting, uncertain, and often hostile landscape of Executive Orders, funding cuts, cancelled grants, and policy U-turns from the federal administration, and how they may impact Massachusetts nonprofits.

Following the panel discussion, Shanique was quoted in the following articles:

Boston Groups Come Together to Face the “Existential Threat” to Nonprofits

Journalist: Rebekah Barber

Source: Nonprofit Quarterly, May 22, 2025

Through her work with the Massachusetts Voter Table, Rodriguez has seen this firsthand. The nonprofit is a coalition of over 40 organizations that “fight for resources, representation, and power for communities of color, working-class people, new citizens, and youth.”

Many of the coalition’s members are service providers who work directly with those who have been most impacted by issues like immigration and are fearful of the rising detentions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without due process. For Rodriguez, putting together a safety plan and rapid response resources is critical for her work.

She noted that one of her partners that works with immigrant workers said that people are not coming to meetings anymore because they are afraid.

“Many of our 501c3 movement partners at the organization are BIPOC-led, BIPOC-serving,” Rodriguez said. “We are talking about individuals who are doing work in a time that is also impacting themselves. These are not people that are far removed from communities. These are folks who live in community who are doing the work.”

For Rodriguez, it is critical for funders to be investing in groups that are most directly impacted. She notes that too often resources are invested in political parties instead of people and organizations who are “doing boots-on-the-ground work.” Read the full article here.

Nonprofits agree they are worse off under Trump

Journalist: Chris Lisinski

Source: 22 News WWLP.com, May 5, 2025

BOSTON (SHNS) – Hundreds of workers and leaders at nonprofits across Massachusetts overwhelmingly agreed that the Bay State will fare worse under the Trump administration, voicing concerns about funding cuts and heightened stress on vulnerable populations. […] Shanique Rodriguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, said her group is “looking at pulling together rapid response funding” alongside partner groups like Lawyers for Civil Right. Read the full article here.

To schedule an interview with Shanique Rodriguez, please email info@mavotertable.org.

Table Talk: The SAVE Act passed the House… here’s what you can do before it reaches the Senate.

The Massachusetts Voter Table is committed to protecting voter rights and ensuring the right to vote remains accessible to all eligible voters within Massachusetts. However, just last week, the US House of Representatives passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, a bill that would require individuals to provide U.S. citizenship documentation when registering to vote.

This Executive Order is unconstitutional and rooted in disinformation. It seeks to weaponize overstated federal authority to intimidate voters, create confusion, and further restrict access to the ballot.

This Executive Order will disproportionately impact people who have changed their names after marriage, and may not have documentation that matches their current legal name, naturalized citizens, and voters of color, many of whom already face systemic barriers to participation. We cannot allow misinformed claims to erode public trust in our election system or silence the voices of Massachusetts voters.

Now more than ever, we should be focused on pushing greater access for eligible voters. That's why we are a part of the Election Modernization Coalition, helping to move voter access policies like Same Day Voter Registration.

Ways you can support:  

Upcoming Partner Events

Our Table members host fundraisers, celebrations, trainings, and public speaking events throughout the year. Click the links below to learn more about upcoming events you can join or volunteer at:

May 2025

Open Positions at Partner Orgs

Several of our Table members are hiring! Click the links below to learn more and apply:

Don't forget to email your Senator today to ask them not to pass the SAVE Act when it reaches the Senate. Your support and participation in actions and volunteer opportunities helps further the Massachusetts Voter Table’s 2025 goals and priorities and helps get us closer to building an equitable democracy.

Table Talk: The State House is back in full swing and so are we!

The Massachusetts Legislature's new legislative session is in full swing. Now is the best time to have the greatest impact on how policy gets moved in our state. The Voter Table is collectively working to advocate for our priorities this year, starting with rent stabilization. Victories on raising wages and improving benefits in several gateway cities are negated due to increasing rents, adversely impacting vulnerable people. Massachusetts residents are struggling economically, and rent stabilization is one way to help. We believe that everyone, regardless of what you look like or what ZIP code you live in, deserves an affordable place to live. We know that enacting modern, common-sense rent control would increase housing stability for hundreds of thousands of residents and advance racial justice.

On April 7th Homes for All, along with coalition partners, will be holding a legislative briefing on rent stabilization at the State House in an effort to help legislators understand the critical need for rent stabilization and to ask for co-sponsorship support of H.2328 and S.1447, An Act Enabling Cities and Towns To Stabilize Rents And Protect Tenants.

Send an email to your legislator today asking them to co-sponsor these bills to help ensure housing affordability.

Upcoming Partner Events

Our Table members host fundraisers, celebrations, trainings, and public speaking events throughout the year. Click the links below to learn more about upcoming events you can join or volunteer at:

March 2025

April 2025

Open Positions at Partner Orgs

Several of our Table members are hiring! Click the links below to learn more and apply:

Don't forget to email your legislator today to co-sponsor rent stabilization bills. Your support and participation in actions and volunteer opportunities helps further the Massachusetts Voter Table’s 2025 goals and priorities and helps get us closer to building a multiracial democracy.

Our 2025 Organizational Priorities

The Massachusetts Voter Table is gearing up for another busy year for advocacy and voter engagement. Between post-election into the new year, our Table staff and Table partners settled on our state-wide priorities for our collective work and growth.

Here’s what you can expect us to be mobilizing our partners, and you, on this year:

Our 2025 Organizational Priorities

1️⃣ Municipal Elections/Making City Hall Work in Massachusetts:

Public housing, accountable policing, education, healthcare resource funding, and more are just some of the key decisions and powers of elected municipal leaders. These decisions, arguably, have the most concrete and immediate impact on low-income and BIPOC residents in our most disenfranchised communities across the state. Additionally, local elected officials often ascend to the statehouse and/or Congress, into positions that form the first rung on the leadership ladder of both state and national politics. However, voter participation among people of color, young people, and low-income voters drops off sharply between state-level and local elections with turnouts as low as 10%. In 2025 we aim to drive voter engagement and participation through targeted outreach, education, and mobilization efforts with our partners.

2️⃣ Voting Access/Same Day Voter Registration and Decoupling the Municipal Census:

We continue our over a decade-long fight to pass Same Day Voter Registration. With 23 states and D.C. already having passed Same Day, Massachusetts is long overdue. No eligible voter, who shows up on election day, should be turned away due to our antiquated voter registration policies. Additionally, not responding to the municipal census should no longer result in being removed from the voting register. This change will maintain the municipal census for data collection and jury selection; moving forward if a voter does not return the annual municipal census, they will not be labeled an INACTIVE VOTER. These issues predominately create barriers for low-income and BIPOC working-class communities, than they do for other communities. Our Table, alongside coalition partners in the Election Modernization Coalition will be working hard this year to advocate for the passage of both these issues this legislative session.

3️⃣ Housing/Rent Stabilization:

Victories on raising wages and improving benefits in several gateway cities are negated due to increasing rents, adversely impacting vulnerable people. Massachusetts residents are economically struggling and rent stabilization is one way to help. Everyone, regardless of what you look like or what ZIP code you live in, deserves an affordable place to live. For thirty years, profit-seeking corporate investors have taken advantage of an outdated ban on local rent control, spiking housing costs and making it impossible for many of us to stay in our homes and communities. We know to enact modern, common-sense rent control housing stability would increase for hundreds of thousands of residents and advance racial justice.

4️⃣ Clean Slate/Automatic CORI Sealing:

The Clean Slate Bill will be pivotal in changing the lives of many residents across the state. We plan with this legislation to advocate for the automatic sealing of certain criminal records after a three- or seven-year waiting period, allowing people with previous convictions to secure meaningful employment, find housing, pursue their education, and participate fully in their communities. Massachusetts has taken bold action in CORI reform in previous years, but this goes one step further in ensuring eligible citizens, returning to their homes and communities, have a good opportunity to become productive members of their communities. Individuals who cannot find legal housing or jobs are more likely to re-offend, making their communities less safe. BIPOC and low-income communities stand to benefit the most economically if this is passed.

5️⃣ Immigration/Safe Communities Act:

With immigration being a hot topic on the national level, and movement spaces feeling driven to support current immigrants and migrants, our Table has moved to support the Safe Communities Act. It’s time to end the voluntary involvement of our public safety officials in civil immigration matters. The Safe Communities Act would: Prohibit questioning by court and police officials about immigration status, protect basic rights, just like a “Miranda” warning, protect access to justice in our courts, and prohibit agreements that deputize local officials as federal immigration agents, at state taxpayers’ expense. Activists and police chiefs have been working towards passing the Safe Communities Act for nearly a decade; 2025 is the year to make this a reality for our residents. Furthermore, this would offer safety to immigrants when reporting domestic violence, workplace violations, and housing violations to public officials, without fear of retaliation or deportation.

Through innovative voter outreach strategies, the engagement of our Democracy HUBS and table members, and our coalition work, MVT builds the capacity and leadership of our members. We work to advance a collective agenda of local and statewide policy for racial and economic justice, by bringing together community organizations across the state. The efforts we take this year have the capacity to impact our collective long-term agenda for change for our most vulnerable communities. We can’t do this work without your help.

We remain grateful to you for supporting MVT. As we embark on meeting the urgency of current national politics’ impact on communities, and deepening our reach and work during critical 2025 municipal elections and an ambitious legislative agenda, we lean on you once again for your support.

Our 2024 Impact Report is here!

Happy New Year! I hope this note finds you healthy, warm, and prepared for another busy year of advocacy in action.

2024 was a year of transitions, new faces, and a challenging electoral year with a fair share of disappointments, but also an incredible year of success in meeting big goals for our partners, including:

  • Raising and awarding over $1.4 million in grants to our Democracy HUBS

  • Achieving success with three of our endorsed referendum campaigns

  • Creating and distributing over 107,000 voter guides in seven languages

  • Reaching over 600,000 voters inviting them to participate in our recent elections

Today, we are glad to share our 2024 Impact Report with you.

We are so proud of the work of our HUBS partners, grassroots leaders, coalition colleagues, and friends. We are truly indebted to all of them and to you for your ongoing support, which allows us to do this work. Please join us in 2025 as we continue to work towards a more just democracy for our communities in Massachusetts.

Everyday Democracy Edition: An Interview with the Better Budget Alliance’s Kendra Patterson →

What should we remember as we start to engage in participatory modes like PB? 

For us to have participatory budgeting and for us to focus on being resident and people powered, it is really important that we act and that we step into our power and participate. This is a real opportunity for us to not only organize with one another, but also for us to be creative and really think through what we need and what we need to prioritize for our own communities. So: participate. Even if you don’t have an idea yourself: brainstorm, talk with your friends and family, and make sure that your voice is heard.  

The best way to stay connected to this work is going to an assembly that's happening in your neighborhood, learning more about participatory budgeting, and submitting an idea–have some fun with it!

Read more

Boston Foundation invests more than $4 million in six local social justice leaders →

By Lauren Booker Globe Staff,Updated April 9, 2024, 2:49 p.m.

The Boston Foundation has identified six community partners in a new Shifting Power, Advancing Justice initiative, and will invest more than $4 million in their organizations to support their work on social justice efforts, according to an announcement this week.

Each nonprofit organization and “movement” leader will receive $675,000 over three years as a part of the Shifting Power, Advancing Justice focus area. The funding would support general operations, wellness, technical assistance, capacity building, and can be used for emergencies.

“These six movement leaders each play a central role in their organizations and in the broader community. They are difference makers, shaping collective action that improves lives and drives social and economic change,” said M. Lee Pelton, president and CEO of the Boston Foundation.

The selected leaders are Darian Burwell Gambrell, executive director, DEAF, Inc.; Gamaliel Lauture, co-executive director, Brockton Interfaith Community; Mike Leyba, co-executive director, City Life/Vida Urbana; Noemi Mimi Ramos, executive director, New England United 4 Justice; Shanique Rodriguez, executive director, Massachusetts Voter Table; and Dwaign Tyndal, executive director, Alternatives for Community and Environment.

As part of the Shifting Power, Advancing Justice initiative, the community leaders will partner with the Boston Foundation to craft their work plans, with the goal of tailoring the funding directly to that work, “to ensure [the funding] serves their needs, goals and long-term vision,” according to the announcement.

“We … know that our most valuable role can be played beyond the grant itself, providing a space and platform for these movement leaders to connect, plan and build community with each other to create a stronger, networked ecosystem for change,” said Vetto Casado, director of Shifting Power, Advancing Justice at the Boston Foundation.

With extensive resumes marked by years of pushing for social justice, the grant recipients have made impacts beyond their current organizational role.

For instance, Mike Leyba, with City Life/Vida Urbana, has fought for equal marriage rights for LGBTQ people. And, for four years, Shanique Rodriguez, with Massachusetts Voter Table, worked as the manager of mobilization and BIPOC organizing at Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts.

“They each have unique approaches to that leadership and, with this new effort, we strive to create a partnership that respects and supports each of them and the organizations they represent to continue and amplify their transformative work,” said Pelton.

Much unease in blue states as Supreme Court weighs the Trump ballot case →

Shanique Rodriguez, who works to improve voter turnout as executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, views the intense focus on the 14th Amendment as a real-time civics lesson and the legal tussles over Trump’s candidacy as a healthy sign of engagement with democracy.

At the same time, she said, she is concerned that efforts to remove him from ballots only deepen doubts about the reliability of elections — doubts Trump has fueled since his loss in 2020. Talk of barring a candidate from the nation’s highest office, Rodriguez said, “creates this feeling of, ‘Can I even trust the system?’”

Read more

Rejected ballots cited in push for same-day registration →

Shanique Spalding, executive director of the MA Voter Table, said showing up to the polls to vote “is enough of a challenge for many voters” and administrative issues “should never be a barrier to their vote being counted.”

“Same-day registration addresses registration issues promptly, empowering voters of color, low-income voters, and unlikely voters,” she said.

“It ensures that every eligible voter who wants to can exercise their right to vote and have their voices heard in our democracy.”

Read more