[quote=Vod-Vil]”Just so everybody understands, the “anti-union” propaganda is not being pushed by taxpayer advocates, and nothing that’s being proposed would result in lower taxes for taxpayer Joe Sixpack.”
Why do the unions support sales tax increases that directly impact the poor?
Joe Sixpack proposes that the unions should stop putting sales tax increases on the ballot.If the unions want respect,let them go after the “Privatization Movement”,and quit jacking up taxes on the poor.[/quote]
Most union members do NOT want higher sales taxes, but they are left with no options because larger and more powerful interests are doing everything in their power to protect the interests of the very wealthy — challenging any moves to increase income, property, or other taxes that are less regressive.
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Service Employees International Union Local 721’s political education committee recommended unanimously Thursday night that the group take a position against the tax, which is backed by City Council President Herb Wesson for the March 5 ballot. The council’s final vote on that tax is slated for next week.
L.A. leaders frequently rely on unions to deliver financial support for city and county tax measures. Charley Mims, a member of SEIU 721’s Committee on Political Education, said it was “pretty obvious” the proposal [to increase the sales tax] was generated by Wesson after closed-door talks with the real estate industry, which steered city leaders away from a tax on property transactions and toward one on general sales in the final days of deliberations.
“We’re concerned that this was just sprung on us overnight from the backroom and we don’t really have the details,” he said. “And we’re concerned about it being a regressive tax that’s really going to be affecting poor and middle-class people more than anybody else — and those are our members.”
Note: the vast majority of the support for the sales tax came from the private sector, specifically real estate/development…where the vast majority of the fraud, waste, and abuse in local govt occurs.
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The push for a sales tax increase is being led by City Council President Herb Wesson, who has helped raise more than $1.2 million for the pro-Proposition A campaign. More than one out of every four dollars has come from labor unions, most of them representing city employees. Service Employees International Union, which represents civilian city employees, has given $100,000. Its members at City Hall received a 3.75% pay increase last summer and are in line for another 1.75% raise in July and a 5.5% pay hike on Jan. 1, 2014.
As of Friday afternoon, real estate interests and billboard companies had provided one-third of the money collected in support of Proposition A, according to Ethics Commission records. Several donors are waiting for the City Council to approve their projects or have already received permission to use tax revenue to finance their projects.
The single biggest donor has been NFL stadium developer Anschutz Entertainment Group, which has received a series of lucrative deals with City Hall over the last decade. The company was given the right to keep up to $270 million in tax revenue generated by its hotels at the LA Live entertainment complex over 25 years.
So, unions provided only about 25% of the funding for the sales tax proposition; the vast majority of the funding came from the PRIVATE SECTOR.
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In Washington:
The Washington Education Association is withholding support from Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed half-cent increase in the sales tax to help schools and health care programs. Instead its leaders want lawmakers to look for other tax options that don’t hit the low-income taxpayer so hard.
