Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick did not hold back on Monday when he called the state of Massachusetts “Taxachussets” and added that the state’s high tax rate makes it harder to get good players on the team.
During a segment on The Pat McAfee Show, Belichick said that the state was not helping the Patriots. Belichick spent 24 seasons with the Patriots and brought home six Super Bowl championships, but he feels that will be harder to do from now on, especially because of the greedy state’s millionaire tax of a four percent surcharge on income exceeding a million dollars.
“That’s Taxachusetts,” Belichick snarked. “Virtually every player, even the practice squad … even the minimum players, are pretty close to $1 million. So, once you hit the $1 million threshold, you pay more state tax in Massachusetts.”
He went on to say, “Just another thing you’ve got to contend with in negotiations up there. It’s not like Tennessee or Florida or Nevada or some of these teams have no state income tax.”
“You get hit pretty hard on that with the agents. They’ll come and sledgehammer you down about the tax they’re paying. We don’t get any benefit from that,” Belichick continued.
Even though he is no longer coaching the Patriots, Belichick still resides in the high-tax state and even recently bought a $4.8 million home in Nantucket, the New York Post reported.
While “Taxachusetts” does have higher taxes, the state does not top the rogues list. According to the finance website Wallet Hub, Massachusetts is the twentieth highest for its total state tax burden of 8.55 percent annually (excluding the four percent surcharge Belichick was discussing). The top five worst states are New York, Hawaii, Vermont, Maine, and California.
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