“They’ve got that extra four-percent millionaires tax out here too.”
After the Massachusetts tax rate was recently (and prominently) brought up by their former head coach, Patriots defensive linemen Davon Godchaux and Keion White also took time to offer some commentary on the “millionaires tax.”
Speaking during a recent episode of Godchaux’s “ChauxTalk” podcast, the duo sounded off on several financial subjects, including the Commonwealth’s four-percent surtax on taxable income over $1 million.
“When you get paid, when I get paid, you have federal taxes, you have state taxes, you’ve got agent fees and then you have to live off the rest,” Godchaux explained. “Everybody thinks when you sign a $20 million contract that all $20 million is going to come to you, no.”
Godchaux, 29, has totaled $31,558,169 in (pre-tax) career earnings, according to NFL salary website Spotrac. He originally signed in New England in 2021 and has agreed to multiple contract extensions since that time.
“What in the Bible says you have to pay taxes? That’s what kills me, though,” Godchaux said. “They say the tax money goes to roads and all that. The roads are still messed up. Where’s the money going? That’s the only thing I have a [problem] about.”
White, 25, was a second-round pick by the Patriots in 2023. He’s currently in the second year of a four-year contract that will be worth a reported $7,790,161. In his view, it’s a reason to be an active participant in democracy.
“That’s why you get out and vote and elect politicians with interests like [yours],” he told Godchaux, “so that the programs can fund things like schools, better infrastructure, things like that. But a lot of the money is being spent in dumb ways.
“My opinion, it’s 2024, we should be able to decide where our money goes,” White continued. “Like every time you file your taxes, you can click programs you want to distribute your taxpayer money into.”
Eventually, the two moved to the Mass. “millionaires tax” specifically.
“They’ve got that extra four-percent millionaires tax out here too. That will get you too,” said White.
“Massachusetts is bad with state taxes,” agreed Godchaux. “It’s terrible. It’s right up there with New York and [California]. It’s terrible.
“I just heard Bill Belichick spoke about it,” Godchaux added, “how it was tough to sign free agents in Massachusetts because of the state tax. Guys were like, ‘No I won’t come here because of the tax.’ I mean guys these days, if you can sign with a team with no state tax, then go ahead and sign with them because that’s more money you keep in your pocket.”
Belichick’s comments came during an interview on “The Pat McAfee Show” in which he was asked specifically about the millionaires tax.
“It’s Taxachusetts,” Belichick noted earlier in the week. “Virtually every player, even the practice squad, well the minimum players are pretty close to $1 million so once you hit that $1 million threshold then you pay more state tax in Massachusetts. It’s just another thing you have to contend with in negotiations up there.”
The Mass. millionaires tax was voted into existence in 2022 when it passed with a 52-percent margin. It was put into effect in the final year of Belichick’s near-quarter century tenure as Patriots head coach.
In the first year of its implementation in 2023, the tax collected more than was expected, generating an additional $2.2 billion for the state, according to a recent announcement from local officials.
Interestingly — in the context of White’s comments about being able to have a say in where the money goes — the millionaires tax revenue can only be spent on education and transportation projects. Its effects have already achieved tangible results.
“Last year, that money funded free public school meals for every child in the state,” noted WBUR reporter Walter Wuthmann during an NPR interview in June.
In total, more than half a billion of the tax revenue went to education funding, with an additional $477 million going to the struggling MBTA, as well as local agencies for road and bridge repairs, according to Gov. Maura Healey’s office.
The tax itself has limited reach, but a large impact. According to a study from the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, only around 0.6 percent of all Mass. households were subject to the surtax, though that small group collectively earned “22-percent of all taxable income in Massachusetts.”
