CTA members arrested in California Capitol- State of Emergency

A Highway Patrol officer prepares to take into custody the first 14 Capitol Insiders who refused to leave the building when so directed slightly after 6PM on Thursday evening. These 14 placed themselves outside the offices of Assembly Republican Leader Connie Conway, saying they would stay there until she provided a budget proposal that would protect schools.

Among those the Highway Patrol began arresting for trespassing are (from l.) Barbara Franklin, Miriam Aguilar Escobar, and CTA Board Member Theresa Montano.

Meanwhile, at Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton’s office, CTA President David A. Sanchez and other Capitol Insiders were reportedly also being taken into custody by law enforcement officers for refusing to leave until the Senator presented an acceptable budget that included an extension of the state’s temporary taxes.

The arrests came on the day that the Assembly Republicans released a budget proposal that would slash nearly $500 million more from public education.

“Basta, basta (enough, enough),” said CTA Member Aguilar Escobar to Spanish language media prior to her arrest.
Join the teachers in a support rally.  Friday. 4 - 6 PM. Sacramento State Capitol.

We are not broke, but Corporate Tax Subsidies are Killing Us!

Dr. Duane E. Campbell and Dr. Bill Barclay.

“We’re broke,” said John Boehner, Republican speaker of the House in arguing for $100 billion in cuts in the federal budget, cuts that impact students, poor and the elderly.

 This argument is false.

 The US is not broke – and neither is California.

We suffer from two problems: a huge concentration of income at the very top of the income distribution and a tax system that fails to tax  that concentration.  Our tax system asks those with less to pay more and those with more to pay less. 

Who Doesn’t Pay their Fair Share?

Concern about budgets and taxes should begin with a focus on who doesn’t pay their fair share of taxes. The most recent IRS Oversight Board Report found that $290 billion in individual and corporate income taxes goes uncollected because of misreporting.  Almost 2/3 of the misreporting by individuals occurs among the top 10% of households by income.  So, you might think that John Boehner would be concerned about collecting  these taxes.  You would be wrong:  instead Mr. Boehner proposes cutting $285 million from the IRS budget.

Even more illuminating is the comparison of who pays and who doesn’t with 1961, the year in which President Obama was born.

In 1961 there were 15,753 households who reported income of more than one 1 million in 2011 dollars – and their average federal income tax rate was 43.1%.  Today there are 361,000 households with income over $1 million – almost a 20-fold increase.  At what rate do these pay?  23.1%.  If these very few extremely rich households paid at the 1961 rate, we would have an additional $231 billion in revenue – for roads, scholarships, health care and other public needs. 

Who else doesn’t pay their fair share?  At the head of the list would be companies such as General Electric, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. 

• During the past five years, General Electric made $26 billion in profits in the United States – and received a $4.1 billion refund from the IRS. 
• In 2008, Goldman Sachs made a profit of $2.3 billion – and paid only 1.1 percent of its income in taxes.
• Bank of America made $4.4 billion in profits last year – and received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS. 

Both Goldman Sachs and Bank of America were saved by average taxpayer, you and me, in the bail out engineered by the Bush administration. Goldman Sachs received $10 billion, and Bank of America tapped us for over $25 billion.  

The list of corporate tax evaders is much longer than these three but these cases illustrate the larger problem with our existing tax system at both the federal and state levels.  Over the past 5 decades, corporations have shifted taxes from themselves to everyone else.  If US corporations, who reported pre-tax profits in 2010 of $1.24 trillion, paid taxes at the same rate as they did in 1961, there would be an additional $485 billion in federal tax revenue.

And, who doesn’t pay their fair share in California ?

Well, Amazon for one.  We should  enforce the current California law taxing the sales of goods by out of state companies (such as Amazon)  over the internet.

The companies that take our oil from the ground.  California is the only oil producing state in the country that imposes no taxes on the pumping of oil. The proposed tax was to be 6% of the sales price of oil.  Alaska and Louisiana both charge 12.5%.   

The corporations who received a middle of the night tax cut to in  2009 and 2008 tax cuts to gain the extra Republican votes for the budget. 

The high income people who received a tax bonanza in the extension of the Bush Era tax cuts in  the December federal   budget deal, including the reduction of taxes to the wealthiest taxpayers.  State tax rates  should be increased so that these persons making over $250,000 each pay their fair share.

The corporations using a loophole in Proposition 13 to not accurately record the value of their commercial property.

These are just a few of the many  available tax entitlements given to the wealthy and corporations in the state tax codes.

Where Else Should We Tax?

Taxes should also be used to discourage economically wasteful and/or socially harmful activity.  Thus we tax tobacco and alcohol consumption.  One additional tax fits this category and would raise a very large amount of revenue: a financial transaction tax (FTT) or a sales tax on finances.   An FTT would levy a small fee on all trading of stocks, bonds and currencies as well as derivatives of these financial assets.  If the tax were set at $1 on every $400 (0.25%) of the amount traded, it would raise over $500 billion annually.  And the vast majority of this tax would be paid by the hedge funds, banks and other financial entities that caused the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession.

Are we broke?  No.  All we lack is the political will on the part of Congress and the Legislature to solve our deficit problem by taxing those who have wealth  rather than sacrificing the well being of those who have not.  That may be a kind of deficit but it is political, not financial. 

Dr. Duane E. Campbell and Dr. Bill Barclay.

Duane Campbell is a Professor (emeritus) of Bilingual/Multicultural Education at CSU-Sacramento and the Chair of  the Sacramento local of Democratic Socialists of America.

Prior to retiring in 2004, Dr. Barclay worked for 22 years in financial services.  His areas of expertise were financial product creation, including development of derivative products, and business strategy planning.

Currently he is an Adjunct Professor in the Liautaud College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois, Chicago

Local School Districts face financial trouble

We are told this morning that each of the major school districts in the county are in financial trouble. Last year, when Natomas was in trouble, the Sacramento Bee and County Superintendent David Gordon opined that the Board of Education was financially irresponsible. However, realistically, the economic troubles were caused by the state and national economic crisis. The state has provided schools with $18 billion less in state aid over the last three years- thus the local districts are going broke.
Note to Sacramento Bee.  It wasn't the School Board, it was the economic crisis!
How did we get into this fix? Well, first was the economic collapse caused by the bankers and the real estate fraud artists. That took 13 Trillion from the economy crashing the U.S. and the international economy. That produced a dramatic drop in sales tax and property taxes and a California economic crisis. School funding reveals the nature of crisis. We have larger classes and fewer teachers. School reform has stopped- except for the politicians hot air. School funding makes up a total of 30% of the state budget. Any crisis in the state budget and any cuts in the state budget will make school budgets worse. The crisis will get worse.
Politicians and editorial writers discuss the economic crisis as if the crisis is a neutral act, or as if a natural act. Like rain or snow. The school budgets are a disaster not because of some natural phenomena. The crisis was created by people and policies of our government and of the financial system.

"The reality is that we got into this mess because of an overwhelming excess of greed and stupidity on the part of the Wall Street bankers and the people deciding economic policy. We continue to face excessive rates of unemployment because of a continuing reluctance to pursue policies that can restore the economy to health.”says economist Dean Baker.

California will need to extend the current taxes to fund the schools and to repair the social safety net. Anti tax radicals and Republicans oppose any tax increases and they oppose allowing these issues to be placed on the ballot so the people can vote.

Here is how it works in Sacramento County. There has been a nearly 30 percent drop in sales tax for Sacramento County over the past five years. Property tax funds an even larger share of county budgets, and plummeting real estate values have meant even less income for counties to pay their bills.
During the current fiscal year (2009) , Sacramento's assessed property values dropped by 6.4 percent, and the outlook is for a continued decline into next year. And, the ongoing budget-crisis impacts from the state also caused by the financial recession, which cut funding for counties, yet still requires them to provide costly programs. The reality is that almost all of California's counties are facing significant budget shortfalls resulting in cuts in programs, services and staffing.
Natomas Unified was one of the early casualties. Now, most of the school districts in the area are facing a budget crisis and laying off thousands of teachers. Many more will follow- even with the teachers giving up salary. The states and California are in a downward spiral and it will continue for at least 3-4 years. The children, and the working people are paying for the robbery of the financial classes.
Today, Californians are working harder and earning less
while corporate profits soar. As homeowners, consumers
and students we see our wealth being stripped away by
banks. Our government plunges into debt waging
trillion-dollar wars. Meanwhile, our infrastructure
erodes and climate change proceeds unchecked. Schools,
daycare centers, senior citizen facilities, clinics,
parks and firehouses are starved for funds so that
corporations and the rich can get billions in tax
breaks!

Corporate America's unprovoked assault on working
people has been carried out by manufacturing a need for
fiscal austerity. We are told that there is no more
money for essential human services, for the care of
children, or better public schools, or to help lower
the cost of a college education. The fact is that big
banks and large corporations are hoarding trillions in
cash and using tax loopholes to bankrupt our
communities.

Spending on social needs is not the reason governments
at all levels are facing massive budget short falls.
Our debt and deficit problems are a direct result of
corporate tax rollbacks, and the extortionist policies
of banks and financial institutions that are engaged in
a coordinated and massive wealth transfer from the
people to their own coffers.
Attend the National Teach In on the economic crisis, April 5, at CSU-Sacramento.  11 A.M.
http://progressiveforum07.blogspot.com/2011/03/teach-in-april-5-national-effort.html

Republicans- let the people vote

 The California legislature made at least $ 12 billion worth of cuts that will cost doctors, nurses, medi cal patients, students, prisons, low income families,  in a brutal budget cut vote on Thursday.  The cuts were made by a majority vote as permitted by Proposition 25 passed last year.

However, the extensions of present taxes required to prevent even worse cuts requires a vote of the people. And, to get that vote, the Legislature needs to place these items on the ballot- and that requires a 2/3 vote.  The Democrats do not have the 2/3 votes needed.  To get to the ballot, at least 2 Republicans in each chamber must vote to place the extensions on the ballot.  They refuse.

Under the present cuts the U.C. and the CSU would each lose $500 million on top of the billions cut from prior years. And community college tuition would raise from $26 per unit to $36 per unit.  If the extensions are not passed, these  fee increases will grow dramatically in all three systems

What kind of state cuts food aid to hungry pregnant women and children in the middle of an economic crisis—while giving a giant tax break to billionaires?

A partial solution is to allow the voters to vote on these cuts and the tax extensions.

 Below From. MoveOn.com 

Seriously. WTF?!

The Republicans are winning the battle over the budget, hands down, even though what they're fighting for is, put simply, immoral. A cut of at least $400 million from a crucial program that puts food on the table for pregnant women and small children. Crippling the EPA. Completely eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AmeriCorps, and high-speed rail.¹ 

Instead of creating jobs, the Republican budget would destroy 700,000 of them. Our only hope is a public outcry strong enough to stiffen Democrats' spines and cause Republicans to back down.

House Republicans are proposing reckless cuts that would undo our progress on health reform, prevent the EPA from protecting our air and water, and hurt our economy and job creation.

The cuts are particularly bad for education, and when we're talking about investing in children and schools, we're talking about investing in our future.

If the House Republican budget cuts are adopted:

     -- More than 16,000 classrooms would close;

     -- 55,000 teachers would lose their jobs;

     -- Nearly 200,000 pre-kindergarten children would lose access to Head Start; and

     -- More than 8 million college students currently receiving tuition assistance would see their Pell Grants cut.

The budget the President signs must have bipartisan support, but he's made it clear it also must invest in -- not sacrifice -- education.

Anything less is irresponsible and not worthy of our children.

A compilation of budget posts.

Fair Use

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. WE ARE MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN OUR EFFORTS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. WE BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A 'FAIR USE' OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML. IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND 'FAIR USE,' YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

If any publisher or owner of a copyrighted product believes we have violated your copyright, please contact me and we will usually remove the article, except under the guidelines of fair use above.  We will then post material about the contested issue  from alternative sources.

Oppose the Right Wing/Republican assault on students, unions, and the California Dream

Oppose the Right Wing/Republican assault on students, unions, and the California Dream.

Students are needed to  build a resistance!

The nation,  including California, is suffering a severe recession.  In this crisis  we need to rebuild the promise of California.  That promise is a good job for all,  the opportunity to have  a rewarding career, a decent life,  and the chance for a good education.  The budget cut mania  does not promote good jobs nor  rewarding   careers.  It only digs the hole deeper. Cutting k-12 and higher education makes the state economy  worse.

   The  economic crisis has already  forced the cutting of higher education, of k-12 education, and of social welfare systems.

What caused this crisis ? It was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.   The  major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown.  Now, they have been rewarded with bail out money.  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security.   We already suffer from  cuts in parks,  in universities, in nurses, libraries and police and fire  protection.

   The  continuing economic decline has had a devastating impact on the California budget- and the budgets of 42 other states.   Revenues have continued to plunge and  legislatures  have been forced to make a series of deep cuts to virtually all of the state's programs, including the university systems.  Finance capital stole the future of many in this generation.

  For this year Governor Brown proposes a budget with  $14 billion in more cuts.  In addition, the Governor proposes ballot initiatives for June to extend the current tax rates for five more years.   Republicans are trying to keep these initiatives off the ballot.  If these taxes are not extended, the total cut to the budget will be some $26 billion dollars. The Governor’s  current budget proposal would reduce the state general funds allocated to the CSU to $2.29 billion in 2011/12, 12.5% less than the 2010/11 budget act –this on top of  over $4 billion in prior years’ cuts.   If the taxes are not extended, these cuts would at least double and tuition would increase by up to 50%.  These cuts would be devastating for students and working families.

   This fiscal crisis in the state did not fall from the sky; it resulted from the Great Recession and the looting of our economy by Wall Street and Corporate America.  The proposed budget cuts will only lengthen and deepen the Recession.  Some politicians claim that we can’t afford public education and good universities.  However, there is plenty of money to fund basic human services if we go where the money is; the rich who have gamed the system and accumulated vast wealth in the last three decades.

While  working people  are loosing their jobs in budget cuts, major corporations continue to use the rigged tax code to avoid paying any federal taxes at all. If you have  one dollar  in your wallet, you’re paying more than the  combined income tax liability of GE, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and Bank of America.

Evan worse, the very wealthy such as the Koch Brothers, are using the budget crisis they created to attack union workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana.  Make no mistake about it- if they win in Wisconsin the fight will be brought to California.

Alternatives to painful  budget cuts

Repeal or tax the Republican/Obama Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest 5%.  This would generate about $8 billion annually in California.

Enforce the current law taxing sales of goods by out of state companies (such as Amazon) over the internet.  $1.2 billion.

Tax Oil Extraction when companies take our oil out of the ground.  Alaska, Louisiana, and Texas charge about 12.5%.   $10 billion.

Close Prop.13 Commercial Property Tax Loophole.  $7 billion annually.

Repeal the 2008 California  tax cuts given to corporations. $ 1 billion.

Cut the military budget by 30%.   $420 billion (nationally.) California’s share would be $42 billion.

Details of these proposals are here. http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/response-to-gov-browns-state-of-state.html

Things you can do :

Attend YDS/DSA conference, with Cornel West and others in NYC.  March 18-20. 

Their Crisis is Our Pain: The Democratic Socialists Response to the Great Recession. http://www.dsausa.org/yds/Mar2011/conference.html

Read. Inform yourself.  Join Sacramento DSA. https://sites.google.com/site/sacramentodsa/

Take Class Action.  Join the protests on April 13, 2011, at your nearest California State University campus.   Join with the  Campus Progressive Alliance to help to plan and carry out these demonstrations.

Defend Ethnic Studies.

Defend immigrant workers.

Understanding the state economic crisis

Great materials at California Budget Project. www.cbp.org

Senator Steinberg and the California Budget Crisis

 I just returned fro a Town Hall with Senator Darrell Steinberg  about the state budget crisis at the Belle Cooledge library in Sacramento.  As you know, Senator Steinberg in the Senate Pro Tem ( Democratic Leader) of the Senate, thus he has one of the major inputs on the budget.

Senator Steinberg started with a general view of the budget and the political situation of the coming votes.   Essentially Governor Brown and the Democrats are proposing 12.5 Billion in budget cuts and proposing passing a special initiative to extend the current ( temporary ) tax increases for 5 more years to recover 12.5 billion in revenue.

The room was packed to overflow with persons some of whom agreed with the Senators argument that these cuts were necessary and others who disagreed and argued that these cuts were destructive to life and opportunity.   Advocates for the disabled, for child care workers, teachers, and others made their case.

California can continue the current process of cuts and reductions.  The fiscal crises of the states – all the states- has caused major cut backs and retrenchment and made the economic crisis approach a depression.  The state cut backs are greater than the federal stimulus producing a prolonging of the crisis for working people.   The proposed state cuts will make the recession longer and deeper than is necessary.  Continuing on the present direction produces protection of  obscene profits for billionaires along with growing poverty and hardships for the majority.

The Brown- Democrats approach  would  follow the process of Ireland and Greece and dramatically cut services and impoverish the economy.  Then, since the state  is poorer and has less income you will need to raise more taxes and cut more services all in an effort to protect the excessive profits of bankers and bond holders.  This produces a race to the bottom.

            Detailed copies of important budget documents are at the Legislative Analysts office http://www.lao.ca.gov/ including an overview, and at the California Budget Project  http://www.cbp.org/

            The current plan is to pass a budget, probably the Democrats budget by March 15.  This budget would require that voters also pass an extension of the current (temporary) taxes for 5 years in a June election.  This is similar to Propositions 73.74. & 75 two years ago.  If the voters fail to pass the tax extensions the cuts would be extended to a second 12.5 billion of cuts ruining many of our current services.  A task of the Sacramento Progressive Alliance is to decide if we want to support these tax extension plans.  ( We lost this election last time).

            Eric Vega raised an alternative approach which I was prepared to speak to, but was prevented from speaking due to the many other speakers some on task, some ridiculous.  This is the argument of  taking a high road to creating jobs.  Manny Gale made an impassioned statement that the budget cuts were an issue of values, who is to be valued.   Nell Ranta was assertive in wanting to know why corporations were not paying their fair share of taxes.  She and others pointed out that over 50% of corporations in California pay no taxes at all. 

           

Budget cutting to balance the budget will not get us out of this hole.  Look at Ireland, Greece, or Spain.  Budget cuts only start a downward spiral of pain. We can not simply cut our way out of the crisis, budget cuts and lay offs make the recession worse.

The current dominant themes  with the political elite of both parties and in the media are that cuts are necessary, public employee unions should give up more, and taxes should not be raised. We need to contest against  these basic themes.

At least half of the current  state budget crisis was caused by the national economic crisis.  This crisis was created by finance capital and banking, mostly on Wall Street ,ie. Chase Banks, Bank of America,  Washington Mutual, AIG, and others.   Finance capital produced a $ 2 trillion bailout of the financial industry, the doubling of the unemployment rate and the loss of 2 million manufacturing jobs in 2008.   15 Millions are out of work.  You and I, and did not create this crisis.

While their will be cuts, we on the left should explain an alternative, an expansion of public jobs and fiscal stimulus.  The money for such as stimulus is available. Government must protect and empower our citizens. To foster prosperity  it must prepare the young for civic participation.  Protection includes health care, social security, safe food, environmental protection, safe streets, job protection, etc.

Our economy needs roads, bridges, telephone lines, communications systems, energy and quality education.  These services make freedom and prosperity possible. Conservative tax cut fever ignore the economies need for infrastructure.

We need to build the promise of California.  The promise is an opportunity for a good job.   That promise is a good job for all and the opportunity to have of a good career.  The budget cut-  tax cut mania does not promote good jobs and careers.  It is not true that budget cuts are the only option.

We need to invest in the future.  There are funds available to do this.  A list is here

http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/california-budget-crisis-sources-of.html

below.

Duane Campbell

Electoral Chair. Progressive Alliance