We need to take the threat of GOP LG candidate John Loughlin's bad economic policy seriously

He's also aligned with MAGA PACs in Rhode Island pushing for lower taxes for the rich 

Steve Ahlquist

Loughlin at left (facing away from camera) at a League of
RI Businesses PAC event. 
Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current)

In a press release, Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor John Loughlin, “[c]iting hard IRS migration data from Massachusetts and New York,” labeled the proposed 3% surtax on incomes over $1 million as a “proven job-killing, wealth-repelling mistake.” 

Unfortunately, the interpretation of the “hard IRS migration data” that Loughlin cites (without attribution) comes from the wealth lobby in the form of right-wing think tanks, such as Investment News and others. 

It ignores better studies from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities demonstrating that “[s]ince its implementation in 2023, the [Massachusetts] levy has delivered billions of dollars in new funding for transformative investments [like universal free school meals, fare-free buses, and affordable childcare.] The tax has also routinely exceeded initial revenue projections — outpacing expectations by $3 billion over roughly its first three years.”

“Massachusetts lost $4.2 billion in adjusted gross income in 2023 alone after enacting its 4% millionaire surtax – an 8% increase in income outflow from the prior year, with top earners accounting for roughly 70% of the lost revenue,” said Loughlin, even as Massachusetts, in reality, continues to make new investments in free school meals, fare-free buses, and affordable child care.

Based on his use of wealth-lobby propaganda, Loughlin is proposing a “Millionaire Magnet” agenda consisting of tax cuts (per-job tax credits for pass-through entities) and “more generous charitable giving deductions.” 

In other words, more Reagan-era trickle-down bullshit that has never accomplished anything other than increasing inequality and economic privation. Laughlin’s ideas are worse than bad economics; they’re a cheap scam meant to impoverish, intentionally or not, the economically vulnerable.

Worse, encouraging the rich to give to charity through expanded charitable giving deductions exacerbates wealth inequality. Tax deductions for charitable giving have been turned into a profitable tax dodge for millionaires and billionaires. In a report from the Institute for Policy Studies, it was found that “regular taxpayers subsidize high-end philanthropy”:

• $73.34 billion in tax revenue was lost to the public in 2022 due to personal and corporate charitable deductions.
• If we include only the limited data we have on charitable bequests and charities’ own investments, the revenue loss rises to roughly $111 billion.
• And if we also include the capital gains revenue lost from the donation of appreciated assets, the true revenue costs of charity likely add up to several hundred billion dollars each year.

Loughlin thinks that the drive to tax millionaires is unrelated to tax fairness, and instead comes from a place of jealousy, writing, “Rhode Island’s future depends on choosing growth over envy…” 

This is a common attack from those who see the economy and our places within it as a fair accounting of winners and losers, as if the tax system and state and federal laws established a level playing field in which anyone can succeed with enough pluck, hard work, and intelligence. 

It denies the existence of criminalized poverty, the monopolization of housing, food deserts, environmental racism, inherited wealth, inverted tax codes that favor the wealthy, and a state and federal government that favors oligopolies. It’s better to make you believe that you are poor and struggling due to your own lack of effort, not by forces beyond your control, under the guidance of a wealthy few.

In his press release, Loughlin pledged threatened that if elected Lieutenant Governor, he would work with the General Assembly to enact these reforms immediately and block any version of the millionaire’s tax. This is a threat to take seriously.

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