Time to talk about tax reform

Talking about money: mine and oursPrivate money• Wages• Investment• Inheritance

Private opportunities:Housing, transport, education, recreation, healthcare,recreation, contacts,

Public money• Taxes• Fees

Communal opportunities:Transport, safety, green space, courts, democratic process, arts, clean air, education, recreation

Protect the vulnerable Shelter, health care, crisis intervention, help for seniors, people with disabilities and children

Private Money

Current private income distribution

Concentration of wealth since 1980

The best things in life aren’t free

The cost of raising a child in a middle-income family has increased by 40 percent since 2000. Every child-rearing expense has steeply increased: day-care, education, food, gas, medical insurance, etc

The 2008 recession was the worst blow

Many megabanks brought down the economy by creating and selling risky financial products – with our money

$15 trillion in personal wealth was gone -- Almost $50,000 for every man, woman and child in the US $ 6.1 trillion in housing value disappeared-- As if a hurricane destroyed every house in every state on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida8.4 million jobs were lost

The losses were huge

Investors have fully recovered …

Too many Americans have not…

Milwaukee's poverty rate at 29.4%

Public money

Public money creates opportunities for everyone

Public money sustains the middle class

Public money sets the groundwork for economic growth and security

Dane County Airport

Sewage System Highway systemChippewa Valley Tech College

Sanitation systemPort of Green Bay

Tax policy moves money

We can decide:• where to collect it

• how much to collect

• how to use it

• how to keep the public informed

The less money we collect, the less we have to use for the public good. The less we get from corporations and the super rich, the more they have to invest in elections and lobbying.

City water system

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Not everybody pays their fair share

Not everybody pays their fair shareCorporation Profits Taxes Owed P What could we buyMattel $1 billion $270,000,000 0 Family Caregiver Support

Wisconsin Energy

$1.7 billion $456,000,000 0 Senior employment and training programs

Corning $2 billion $540,000,000 0 Annual funding for Alzheimer’s research

Du Pont $2.1 billion $567,000,000 0 Rheumatoid arthritis meds for 60,000 people

Honeywell $4.9 billion $1.3 billion 0 Health insurance for 80,000 workers

Boeing $9.4 billion $2.54 billion 0 National Park Service

Gen Electric $10.5 billion $2.84 billion 0 Small Business Administration

Verizon $32.5 billion $8.8 billion 0 Environmental Protection Agency

Wells Fargo $49.4 billion $13.34 billion 0 National School Lunch program

Tax policy now grows wealth for the top 1%

“280 consistently profitable Fortune 500 companies paid about half the statutory corporate tax rate while spending $2 billion to lobby Congress on tax policy and other issues”

As low as 15%

25% 25% 25%

28%

Top taxes are low-especially for the richest

with income over $87 million

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Causes of the federal deficit

House of Rep./Ryan Budget Plan

Make all Bush tax cuts permanent

Maintain capital gains tax rate at 15%, no Buffet Rule

Maintains current FICA cap, no increase above $110k

Reduce tax rates for wealthy to 25% - average gain = $175,000

Reduce other tax rates to 10%

Cut the formal corporate tax rate to 25%

Eliminate taxes on overseas profits

Repeal Alternative Minimum Tax and taxes in Affordable Care Act

Estimated Reduction in Revenues over 10 years: $10 trillion

Impact of Spending Cuts in House/Ryan Budget

• 17 million people lose access to health care

• 21 million low-income Americans lose Medicaid within 7 years.

• 8 million people lose Food Stamps

• 2 million children removed from Head Start

• 1.8 million women, infants, and children lose food and healthcare support (WIC)

• Over 1 million students lose Pell Grant support

Making the changes we need

Polls consistently show that increasing taxes on the wealthy is hugely popular. In a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of respondents said “upper-income people” were paying too little in taxes.

In a CNN poll, 68 percent of Americans agreed that “the present tax system benefits the rich and is unfair to the ordinary working man or woman,” and 72 percent said they support changing the tax code “so that people who make more than one million dollars a year will pay at least 30 percent of their income in taxes.”