Fact Check: Sonia Chang-Díaz on Taxes

FACT CHECK: Sonia Chang-Díaz ’s Position on Taxes

In recent media interviews, as well as in “anonymous” blog postings and a negative hit piece being lit dropped in the district, Senator Wilkerson and/or her supporters have led voters to believe that Sonia Chang-Díaz would raise taxes on residents in the current fiscal crisis.

These claims are a complete misrepresentation of Chang-Díaz ’s stated position -- a position Chang-Díaz has made clear on her website as well as in six debates with Senator Wilkerson over the course of the campaign.

Claims include:

• “Chang-Díaz has already indicated that she will reach into her constituents’ pockets and grab voters’ money in the form of an income tax hike, during the most critical economic crisis of our time.” (Anonymous, BMG post, October 24, 2008)

• Sen. Wilkerson suggested that Chang-Díaz raised the idea of increasing taxes in the current fiscal context: “The idea there’s even a conversation in this environment about raising taxes is out of the question,” said Wilkerson, a 15-year incumbent. “It is naive.” (Boston Herald, October 15, 2008)

• She repeated this claim again in a recent interview. “The issue of taxes should always be on the table but to raise that now as my opponent has done is just crazy” (WBUR, October 24, 2008)

Fact Check:

Sonia is deeply concerned about the economic hardship families in this district are now facing and has repeatedly talked about these challenges even before the current fiscal crisis exacerbated them.

Sonia is opposed to raising taxes on working families in this economic environment or any other. Throughout this campaign she has talked openly and honestly about the need to address the State’s structural deficit and proposed doing so by closing corporate tax loopholes, giving municipalities greater revenue flexibility and ensuring compliance so that everyone pays their fair share. She repeated this position most recently on WBUR (October 24, 2008)

Sonia has said that, in the long run, she would be willing to discuss different remedies to our fiscal difficulties here in Massachusetts and that no idea should be off the table for discussion. She believes that if we are to accomplish our shared goals – improving schools, making our neighborhoods safe and affordable, and building shared economic prosperity – we must consider and debate every revenue generating alternative, including making the current tax structure more progressive. This is precisely what Barack Obama has proposed on the federal level to reduce the tax responsibility on working families.