We’ve got it! We’ll hold a bake sale to balance the budget. We’ll be selling all manner of goodies: Tax Dodger Doughnuts, Apple Double Irish Loophole Strudel, and more! If you join us in Sacramento, Wednesday, June 6, from 11:30 – 12:30 at 11th and L Street, you too can be part of the solution. You see, balancing the budget on the backs of women with cuts to CalWORKS, childcare, and Cal Grants is as ridiculous as holding a bake sale to bridge the budget gap!
We’ll be in front of Tootsies, sharing information about the impact of cuts on women and children and real ways to raise money to protect safety net programs from cuts. We’ll be selling
Tax Dodger Doughnuts (Calories: 6.5 billion) The State Board of Equalization website lists 500 deadbeats who owe the state of California over $500 million! The Franchise Tax Board estimates that tax cheats dodge $6.5 billion in taxes every year. If we can get these tax cheats to pay up, we won’t have to cut affordable childcare programs for working class families. Source: State Board of Equalization
Apple Double Irish Loophole Strudel (Calories: hundreds of millions) With a handful of employees in a small office in Reno, Apple has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states. Apple also was among the pioneers in creating a tax structure — known as “the Double Irish” — that allowed the company to move profits into tax havens around the world. Apple created two Irish subsidiaries that allowed Apple to send royalties on patents developed in California to Ireland. As a result, some profits were taxed at less than half the American statutory tax rate. Moreover, the second Irish subsidiary allowed other profits to flow to tax-free companies in the Caribbean. Finally, Ireland’s treaties with European nations allowed some of Apple’s profits to travel virtually tax-free through the Netherlands and made the profits essentially invisible to tax authorities. Source: New York Times, April 28, 2012.
Business Climate Budget Fudge (Calories: 1.5 billion) Claims that cuts to the budget will help the California economy are completely false. The CalWORKS and childcare cuts alone will take over a billion dollars out of California’s economic stream. CalWORKS and childcare funds are pumped right back into the economy…these funds help pay for groceries, essential clothing, and household supplies. The impact of these cuts will be felt by the retailers and small businesses that these families patronize and the workers that they employ. Furthermore, states that claim to have better business climates than California have significantly smaller GDPs, higher foreclosure rates, and higher unemployment rates. If California’s business climate is so bad, why does Forbes Magazine report that more billionaires live in California than any other state in the nation?
EZ Bake Tax Break Cookies (Calories: 3.6 billion) Enterprise Zone (EZ) tax breaks have cost the state $3.6 billion, according to the California Budget Project. Businesses that close up shop and relocate to targeted “enterprise zones” are rewarded with substantial tax breaks, even if they don’t create any new jobs. The state doles out $37,000 to employers for EACH worker they fire and replace in an Enterprise Zone (EZ). The Public Policy Institute of California found that EZs have “no statistically significant effect on either employment levels or employment growth rates.”
Subsidized child care, CalWORKS and Cal Grants have been cut enough. Tell the legislature to come up with wise revenue solutions, and NOT balance the budget on the backs of women and children. Click here to send your letter and recommend a baked good!
Related posts:
CalWORKS and Childcare – a Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
CalWORKS and Childcare — A road out of poverty
Stand with women like Magali Sanchez Hall
Why losing childcare means losing hope
Invest in Cal Grants, invest in tomorrow
Regarding photo: Some rights reserved by 5thLuna