NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8482

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From: [e-mail] (Hank Roth)
Subject: TAX the RICH
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{From VOICE OF REVOLUTION, publication of the US Marxist-Leninist
Organization/March 13, 1992}

TAX CUTS THE POLITICIANS DON'T TALK ABOUT

Guess who got a tax break of $1 million in 1991, wage
concessions, state financed job training and infrastructure
improvements---in exchange for a promise to keep a plant open?
We'll give you a hint--they broke the promise. If you guessed GM,
you're right, and this concerns only one plant (Tarrytown, NY).

GM has gotten similar give-a-ways and concessions for years in
exhcange for this promise of jobs. 74,000 workers in the US and
Canada have paid with lower living standards---and now lost jobs.
GM continues to get what it wants. Arlington, Texas, where a GM
plant will remain open--for now--gave away $7-10 million in tax
breaks. The workers also accepted a 3-shift, 7 day operation,
something previously rejected.

GM is responsible for throwing tens of thousands on the street---
permanently. By 1995 they will have cut their workforce in half
(from the 1985 level of about 500,000). Why isn't this considered
a violation of human rights? Aren't these workers being
persecuted, denied their most basic needs?

The government, instead of defending the workers, pays the
corporations for this crime. The reason given for this action is
always the same---protecting jobs. Why should the government pay
these corporations to provide jobs?

In these days of high unemployment, demands by GM and others are
a powerful pressure on workers and communities. The corporations
use and abuse this, regardless of the consequences.

One direct consequence of these tax-breaks to the monopolies are
funding cuts to the public schools. Most schools are financed by
property taxes--which are precisely the ones the companies don't
have to pay. In Tarrytown, for example, the give-awy to GM meant
dozens fo teachers were laid off, new ibrary books and supplies
were eliminated and school repairs postponed. New York state
gives away as much as $500 million a year in tax breaks to
corporations.

A study, by Purdue University, of enterprise zones in Indiana,
found that the cost of jobs was very high. In 1988, Gary, Indiana
paid $73,654 in property-tax give-aways for every single job
created. South Bend, Ind. paid $173,539 for every job. That means
the taxpayers of South Bend will be paying the wages of these
workers for 7 years or more (at an annual wage of $25,000). EACH
GIVEAWAY TO THESE BILLIONAIRE CORPORATIONS IS A TAKE-AWAY FROM
INDIANA'S SCHOOL CHILDREN.

Indiana is not alone in punishing children for the benefit of big
monopolies. Last year, the National School Boards Association
surveyed the nation's 13,000 school districts to find out how
these tax breaks affect the schools. Across the country, hundreds
and thousands of dollars are being lost. St. Louis schools lost
$17 million--13% of their budget. Philadelphia lost $24 million.
A Colorado district lost $497,000, another in Louisiana over $1
million. Cleaveland lost $100 million. One hotel and office
complex there, for example, was given a 100% tax exemption---
worth $4.8 million to the schools. The Florida State Department
of Revenue says corporations in the state got tax breaks of $500
million last year. They contributed only $32 million to public
education.

Two key questions are at stake here. First, economic rights--the
guarantee of a job--should be considered a human right.
Government should protect the human rights of citizens, not pay
to have them abused. Violation of human rights should not be
tolerated.

Secondly, tax policy is a key question for the people. It should
be discussed fully, especially in relation to jobs and education.
Instead, the politicians are trying to buy our votes by promising
a few dollars in tax cuts of one kind or another. This degrades
the democratic process, prventing serious debate by the people on
how tax dollars should be spent.

In actual fact, there is once again taxation without
representation---in that the views and demands of the people are
not represented in the current debate. None of the candidates,
nor the various tax packages now being debated by Congress and
the President, even address this policy of robbing the schools to
pay the corporations. Non of them speak to GM's responsibility.

GM did have a record loss this past year, of over $4 billion.
They also had net profits, averaging $4 billion yearly, from
1983-89. Why should they continue to gain from their abuse of
human rights? Why should innocent children suffer?

[Subscribe to Voice of Revolution from the USMLO, 3942 N Central
Ave., Chicago, Il 60634]

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