Fwd: Stop this train!
Claire N. Dale
From: "Analilia Mejia, NJ Working Families"
Date: Apr 20, 2015 3:51:04 PM
Subject: Stop this train!
To: clair...@verizon.net
Claire -
Yesterday, the Star-Ledger announced its support for our campaign to put the brakes on Governor Christie’s corporate welfare gravy train. [1]
It’s the latest sign of momentum against a corporate welfare scheme that’s completely out of control. Over the last 5 years Governor Christie has given $5.4 BILLION to the wealthiest and most politically connected .01 percent of New Jersey corporations – at a cost to our underfunded schools, state pension, crumbling roads and bridges, and property tax relief. Enough!
Tell your legislators: Stop Chris Christie from awarding any more corporate tax breaks.
J.P. Morgan. Lockheed Martin. Prudential. Panasonic. Citibank – all of them have received tens of millions in public dollars from Chris Christie. In exchange for tax cuts, these corporations are supposedly creating jobs. But we have no idea whether they are actually doing so, because Chris Christie has never even bothered to ask them, despite being required to by law. In many cases we know for a fact that corporations just moved jobs from town to town. Some, like Citibank and Campbell’s Soup, even took the tax breaks and laid people off anyway. [2] [3]
Here’s the worst part: every dollar doled out to Prudential is a dollar that can’t be spent fixing a bridge, paying a schoolteacher, or making college more affordable. While giving out billions in subsidies with one hand, Governor Christie has cut property tax credits for middle-class families and the Earned Income Tax Credit for people struggling on the brink with the other. These reckless subsidies have skewed our state budgets out of balance and put the interests of NJ’s richest residents and corporations ahead of the rest.
Enough is enough: tell your legislators to put the brakes on Christie’s corporate tax cuts.
It might be one thing if these tax breaks were actually creating the jobs we need. But the money hasn’t actually trickled down. New Jersey still has the worst job growth in the region. Last month we actually lost 6,000 jobs and saw our unemployment rate go UP as the rest of the nation recovers.
We can’t afford to keep throwing good money after bad, especially when our state has so many other urgent needs. Christie may put big corporations ahead of working people, but he doesn’t have the last word. For the last six weeks we have been calling on the New Jersey Legislature to impose a moratorium on corporate subsidies and start to bring our state budget back into balance. [4] [5]
Partners and allies (and now major newspapers) have joined the call. Can you add your voice to theirs?
Tell your legislators to stop Governor Christie’s corporate giveaways.
Thanks for all you do,
Analilia Mejia
New Jersey Working Families
SOURCES:
[1] "Editorial: Time to rein in New Jersey's corporate welfare." The Star-Ledger, April 18, 2015.
[2] "Rev. Jesse Jackson leads protest against Citigroup in Jersey City." The Jersey Journal, June 1, 2011.
[3] "Thin soup on layoff details in Campbell's $200 million cost-cutting plan." Campbell's Soup, February 20, 2015.
[4] "Opinion: Despite corporate subsidies, N.J. is still losing jobs." The Record, March 11, 2015.
[5] "N.J. organizations want corporate tax breaks frozen for now." The Star-Ledger, April 14, 2015.
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