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Update on 2009 NYS Budget: Feb. 4, 2009. It passed. Story: here.
Better Budget Choices Could Solve State’s Money Woes
On January 17, more than 100 community, religious, education, environmental, labor and human services organizations from across the state issued a joint statement calling on elected officials to make “better” choices in the upcoming budget debates.
The coalition supports:
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Closing loopholes that allow large, profitable corporations to avoid paying their fair share of state taxes.
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Stopping sweetheart deals with high-priced consultants who are being overpaid to do jobs that state workers can do better and cheaper.
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Lowering drug prices for state and local governments by using New York ’s purchasing power to get a fair deal from the drug companies.
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Reforming economic development programs by improving the effectiveness and accountability of Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs), the Brownfield Clean Up Program (BCP) and the Empire Zones program.
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Enacting the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill and making the beverage bottling industry return unclaimed bottle deposits.
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Making New York ‘s tax system fairer and more equitable by increasing the top marginal tax rates on the highest income households.
The coalition includes the Fiscal Policy Institute, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, NYPIRG, Housing Works, New York State United Teachers, Public Employees Federation, Hunger Action Network of New York State, as well as Environmental Advocates of New York.
[I would add: Bring home the troops from Iraq and spend that money here instead of in Iraq. -isw]
Filed under: Action Alert!, activism, Anti-War, Corporations, Eliot Spitzer, New York State Politics, social & economic justice Tagged: | Eliot Spitzer, Elliot Spitzer
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