From: cd619@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Hank Roth)
Subject: TAX the RICH
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 01:42:54 GMT

<<< via P_news/p.news >>>
{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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