Stanley Aronowitz, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today he found it incredible that both Carl McCall and George Pataki would propose increasing corporate tax giveaways while the state was facing a multi-billion state budget deficit. McCall recently announced that he wants increased tax credits for companies that create jobs slightly above the local average wage. Governor Pataki also recently told that Business Council that he plans to propose more tax cuts for them.
"McCall and Pataki are competing to see who can give away more of our tax dollars to their campaign contributors. The only surprise is that these proposals are not greeted with howls of laughter by the media or cries of outrage by working taxpayers. New York already gives away billions of dollars annually in tax breaks, subsidies and other corporate welfare giveaways and yet both major parties have refused to hold corporations accountable for actually creating jobs. The Democrats and Republicans make poor people sweep the streets for thirty hours a week in exchange for putting a leaky roof over the heads of their children, but even after corporate executives have plundered our pension plans and stolen our children's future, they wouldn't dream of holding corporate officials for the millions they receive in welfare. It is time to end corporate dependence on tax giveaways,” Aronowitz stated.
The Green Party candidate said he would seek to eliminate corporate welfare from the state budget. "Economic development funding should be investing in building a community’s infrastructure and educating and training local workers. Instead, the two major parties over the last thirty years have developed a game of smokestack chasing, where states and communities throw money at corporations to shift jobs from one community to another" noted Aronowitz.
"New York already gives away far too much of our money in corporate welfare. Rather than spending more money as McCall is proposing, we should at least insist that companies create jobs with the money we are already giving away. Companies that fail to meet agreed upon goals for creating living wage jobs should be required to return a proportionate amount of their welfare. We should also overhaul of state Investment Tax Credit so that it is based on actual increases in payroll, like Ohio does. Right now the ITC is so generous that it is almost impossible for a company that does the normal investment in updating their equipment to eliminate most of their tax responsibility," stated Aronowitz.
Stanley Aronowitz, sociology professor, labor activist, author and cultural critic, won the Green Party designation for governor with over 70% of the vote at the party’s convention in Ithaca on May 25. Aronowitz and the Greens offer New York voters a broad vision of radical democracy that combines opposition to corporate power and the plutocratic corruption of politics with commitment to a sustainable environment, racial equality, feminism, gay liberation, and individual freedom. Aronowitz plans an intensive grass roots campaign that will raise the serious economic, social and ecological issues facing the people of New York State—issues that the Democrats and Republicans have consistently failed to engage.
