Tax Wall Street, TIF Reform - on ballot

NA4J members have placed two advisory referenda on the March 20 primary ballot in Uptown precincts, to give voters the chance to make a direct statement to policymaker on two hot issues:

1) Should the hundreds of millions of dollars in Chicago's TIF slush funds be refunded to schools, parks, county health care, services, etc. (instead of being used for corporate welfare for friends of Mayor 1% (no, that's not the wording ... see below)
* more than $800 million sits in these slush funds, while libraries and health/human services are slashed, transit is cut, etc.
* these TIF dollars were long ago diverted from their intended purpose of spurring development in blighted communities

2) Should Wall Street (and their Chicago counterparts at Chicago Mercantile Exchange) pay for wrecking the economy through a small sales tax on financial transactions?
* A national financial transactions tax would generate about $350 Billion per year.
* A sales tax of one dollar (a buck from from the billionaires) on each contract traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (average value of contract: $225,000. price with the 'buck from the billionaires': $225,001) would generate $6Billion for Illinois to put people back to work, fund our schools, create low cost housing, restore the human in human services, etc.

These questions are on the ballot March 20, and the vote will send a message to elected officials how seriously to take the multiple coalition campaigns on these issues.

Join the fight!
- register voters
- work a precinct (knock doors, make phone calls)
- host an educational house meeting
- work election day (March 20) GOTV, poll watching, leafleting

contact us at info@actionforjustice.org

Donate to the campaign online by getting your ticket to the Feb 19 'Song & Struggle' event.

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Here is the text of what will be on the March 20 ballot:

“Should the city of Chicago return all tax dollars held in TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts that should have been allocated to the Public Schools, Parks and the County, to these public bodies and only be permitted to use future TIF revenues to preserve and develop affordable housing (including homeless shelters and transitional housing), living wage sustainable jobs and businesses and youth and senior services and programs?”

“Should local, state and federal governments adopt policies to tax speculative financial transactions, including but not limited to derivatives and futures contracts, and us e the revenue collected to fund the creation and maintenance of programs and services that help low and moderate income people meet basic human needs including jobs, affordable housing, health care and education?”