The Problem
For the past 25 years, tax policy in America has been written by and for the wealthy. The results speak for themselves:
- Trillions of dollars have been added to the national debt through tax cuts that disproportionately benefited corporations and the investor class
- Middle-class wages have stagnated while corporate profits have soared
- Working families pay a higher effective tax rate than billionaires who earn their money through investments
- A tax code so riddled with loopholes, carve-outs, and special interest provisions that it takes an army of accountants to navigate — if you can afford one
The tax code is not broken by accident. It was carefully designed over the decades by the wealthy, the well-connected, well-funded lobbyists, and politicians to move wealth upward. And it has worked exactly as intended.
Maria believes it is time to rewrite it for the people who actually built this country.
The Fundamental Unfairness
Here is something that should make every working American angry.
A teacher in Ravenna, a nurse in Eastlake, a factory worker in Madison — they pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on every single dollar they earn. They can’t hide their income. It shows up on a W-2. The IRS knows exactly what they made.
A hedge fund manager or a wealthy investor
pays a lower tax rate
than a teacher, nurse, or factory worker.
A hedge fund manager or a wealthy investor, on the other hand, can earn millions through capital gains, carried interest, and investment income — and pay a lower tax rate than the teacher, the nurse, and the factory worker. They have access to tax shelters, offshore accounts, and loopholes that no ordinary family will ever see.
This is not a free market. This is a rigged system. And Maria intends to un-rig it.
What Maria Will Fight For
1. A Bipartisan Tax Reform Working Group
Maria will build a coalition of Congress members from both parties who are serious — not just rhetorical — about rewriting the tax code for working Americans. Not another round of tax cuts for the wealthy dressed up as middle-class relief. Real, structural reform that makes the system fairer, simpler, and more honest.
2. Tax Relief for Working Families
Most families don’t need a lecture on tax policy — they need a little breathing room. Maria supports tax relief that actually shows up in everyday life. Help with childcare, healthcare, school — the things people are already paying for.
It’s not complicated. When working families have a little more to work with, it makes a difference.
3. Close the Carried Interest Loophole
Hedge fund managers pay a lower tax rate on their earnings than most middle-class workers because of a provision called “carried interest” that allows them to classify their income as investment gains rather than wages. This is indefensible. Maria will fight to close it.
4. Make Investment Income Pay Its Fair Share
People who earn their living through wages pay payroll taxes on every dollar. People who earn their living through investments largely do not. Maria supports reforming the tax treatment of investment income so that wealth is taxed at rates comparable to work — not at rates that reward having money over earning it.
5. End Corporate Tax Avoidance
Big corporations have figured out how to move profits overseas and use loopholes so they pay far less in taxes than most working people. Maria supports closing those loopholes, cracking down on offshore tax shelters, and making sure corporations that profit from American workers and infrastructure actually pay their fair share.
6. Raise the Minimum Wage
Tax policy alone cannot fix economic inequality. Maria also supports raising the federal minimum wage so that work pays — reducing the need for government assistance and putting more money into the hands of people who will spend it in their local communities.
7. Responsible Deficit Reduction
Maria takes the national debt seriously — not as a talking point, but as a real long-term threat to American prosperity. She believes the path to fiscal responsibility runs through a fairer tax code that generates adequate revenue, not through cutting Social Security, Medicare, or programs that working families depend on. You cannot balance the budget by taking from people who have nothing left to give.
8. Stop Unconstitutional Tariffs
The current administration’s tariff policy is not tax reform — it is a hidden tax on every American family. Tariffs raise prices on goods that ordinary people buy every day, from groceries to appliances to clothing. And these tariffs are being imposed without Congressional approval, in violation of the Constitution. Maria will fight to reassert Congressional authority over trade policy and end the tariff chaos that is driving up costs for families across Ohio’s 14th.
What Maria Will Oppose
- Tax cuts for the wealthy disguised as broad-based relief
- Deficit spending that benefits corporations and investors while cutting services for working people
- Tax policy that punishes work while rewarding passive wealth
- Complexity that serves accountants and lobbyists at the expense of ordinary taxpayers
The Bigger Picture
Tax policy is ultimately a statement of values. When we decide who pays and who doesn’t, we are deciding what kind of country we want to be.
Maria believes in a country where the person who works the hardest pays a fair rate — not a higher rate than someone whose money makes money while they sleep. She believes in a country where corporations that profit from American workers and American consumers contribute to the American common good. And she believes in a country where the tax code is written in plain English for ordinary people, not in fine print for lobbyists.
That is the tax system Maria will fight to build.
A Note from Maria
“I’ve talked to people all across this district — young working couples trying to get ahead, seniors on fixed incomes trying to hold on, small business owners trying to keep their doors open. And what strikes me is that the anxiety is the same across all of them. People feel like the rules aren’t fair. Like they’re working harder than ever and doing everything right, while someone else plays by a different set of rules entirely. They’re not wrong. That’s exactly what I’m running to change.”