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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Mon May 02, 2011 at 15:54:24 PM EDT
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| Come one, come all!
Come to a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston, to support "An Act to Invest In Our Communities"
by John Andrews, Nat Fortune, Shirley Kressel, and Jill Stein
{ Cross-posted at Open Media Boston and Blue Mass Group }
Dear GRP supporters and activists,
Please join us at a hearing on Thursday, May 5, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, State House Gardner Auditorium, Boston. Come tell the Governor and legislature to stop slashing critical health, education, social and environmental services in order to protect billions in useless corporate tax giveaways and subsidies for the massive, needless health insurance bureaucracy!
Raise the bar for a better budget and real tax reform. As a first step, we're supporting "An Act to Invest In Our Communities" (SB1416 / HB2553) at the hearing. Supporting this revenue bill is one part of our commitment to stop the cruel, needless cuts that the governor and legislature are making to critical programs. |
| eli_beckerman :: Join us May 5th to stand against needless and cruel budget cuts! |
| In addition to asking the rich to pay their fair share, the GRP is also calling for single-payer Medicare-for-all health care (saving $1.5 - $2 billion annually) and elimination of unjustified and ineffective corporate subsidies (saving $2.2 billion annually). The Green-Rainbow Party alone brings it all together into a "Better Budget," which will not only prevent new budget cuts, but will allow us to restore essential public services that have been severely whittled away over the past decade.
We can't afford any more bipartisan attacks on low and middle income people while the big banks and other corporations, the insurance companies, and the richest 5% continue to amass ever greater extremes of wealth. The people of Massachusetts deserve better - the GRP Better Budget!
For more details, see below.
Hope to see you there!
John Andrews and Jill Stein, GRP co-chairs
Shirley Kressel and Nat Fortune, the GRP Better Budget Initiative
PS. Wear something green (or rainbow!) colored so we can show the rising tide of GRP support for real change for a just and sustainable future. We'll have stickers and buttons to give you as well.
PPS. If you'd like to help at the rally or get more information, call 617-418-3756, or email office@green-rainbow.org .
More background on the budget crisis and the "Act to Invest In Our Communities:"
State officials say we face a $1.9 billion budget deficit, and intend to further slash essential public services and weaken collective bargaining. The " Act to Invest In Our Communities" legislation would raise $1.2 billion in new revenue annually. It restores the state income tax rate from 5.3% to 5.9%, but raises the personal exemption enough to freeze or decrease the tax burden for middle-class and low-income families. It also raises revenue from investment income, which does not impact the majority of Massachusetts families. The financial impacts are explained at http://onema.org/sites/default/files/InfoSheet_ActToInvestInOurCommunities.pdf
Other important bills to end wasteful corporate tax giveaways:
HB2565/S153 An act for economic efficiency and transparency
HB3015 An Act relative to the taxation of certain mutual fund service corporations (ends the Fidelity giveaway).
More background on the GRP Better Budget initiative:
The Green Rainbow Party is working on a broad economic strategy that would:
$ Stop the cuts to education, local aid, health care, environment, social services & local aid!
$ Let corporations & the wealthiest individuals start paying their share! Ordinary taxpayers now pay up to twice the rate as the wealthy.
$ Reduce taxes & fees on working people.
$ Eliminate corporate giveaways that don't create jobs, yet cost billions.
$ Create affordable, comprehensive health care - and save billions - with a single-payer Medicare-for-all system.
$ Invest in our communities - in public higher education and local small businesses and cooperatives - to end the jobs deficit.
RSVP to the Facebook event & invite your friends! |
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| About |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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