| Taking It to “The Street”: May 12th Rally Calls for “Banks & Millionaires to Pay Fair Share” |
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| Wednesday, 04 May 2011 09:00 |
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With Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor Andrew Cuomo polishing their “No New Taxes” campaign buttons via imposition of billions in budget cuts to vital government programs, human service providers are joining a growing coalition of community, labor, and progressive groups in a call for “big banks and millionaires to pay their fair share.” The coalition is hoping to draw thousands of New Yorkers from all walks of life for a May 12th “March to Wall Street”. The May12 Coalition hopes to highlight the contradictions between what it sees as “corporate welfare, property tax giveaways, and seemingly endless local and national tax cuts enjoyed by the financial sector” and the Mayor’s “proposed cuts to childcare, classrooms, public safety, and dozens of other services working New Yorkers rely on.” “Mayor Bloomberg has already proposed to cut $500 million in human services funding for next year and has given every indication that he has no choice but further cuts to services for the poor and middle class in NYC,” said Michael Stoller, Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York. “Well there is a choice, the banking industry and the wealthy can pay their fair share too by giving back $1.5 billion in subsidies, sweetheart deals and tax loopholes. Nonprofits and the clients they serve have paid more than their share for long enough.” “The big banks wrecked our economy and are back to making billions in profits and lavish bonuses, while the rest of us are still cleaning up the mess they created,” said Mary Brosnahan, the Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “Now Bloomberg has a choice: ask Wall Street bankers to contribute their fair share to fixing New York City, rather than enacting devastating cuts to working families.”
The Coalition claims that the six largest banks – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley – are now making over $199 million per day in profits and that it is time for them to join in the sacrifices being imposed on ordinary New Yorkers. “Mayor Bloomberg must stop over one billion dollars worth of current subsidies, tax cred¬its and special low-cost energy deals with the ‘Big Six’ banks, demand $100 million back from banks that didn’t create jobs and repayment of over $200 million in current and recent-year subsidies,” said the report. The group went on to note that “Big Six banks have over $600 million in current contracts with City government for services – it’s only fair to cut what banks are paid for these contracts by 20% to save $120 million when nonprofits and other contrac¬tors and agencies are facing similar cuts.” The Coalition organizers promise that May 12th will be more than just a typical rally. “On May 12, tens of thousands of New Yorkers will descend on Wall Street, creating a giant school without walls throughout the financial district,” said Michael Mulgrew, President of the united Federation of Teachers. “Together, we will educate our city and expose the people and institutions that are destroying our jobs and our economy, and the politicians who are letting them get away with it.” The event will culminate a week of related activities and coincide with what organizers see as a growing national movement by communities increasingly questioning the practices of the financial industry and fighting back against what they see as “attacks on working people”. “We are connecting the dots from the big banks that crashed our economy, destroyed millions of jobs and foreclosed on millions of family homes to the human impact here in the financial capital of our country, ” said Michael Kink, Executive Director of Strong Economy for All Coalition. For more on planning of the event and a full list of participating organizations, as well as a copy of today’s report, visit www.onmay12.org. |
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