BUILD RESOURCES FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION AND OPPOSE BUSH TAX FAVORITISM AND SUPPORT FAIR TAXATION

WHEREAS, multinational corporations operating in the U.S. rely on the American infrastructure, especially its education system; and

WHEREAS, corporate federal and local taxes have declined to only 1.5 percent of GDP in 2002 compared to 4.1 percent of GDP in 1965; and

WHEREAS, these extremely low rates largely due to the explosion of tax shelters written into the tax code with the greatest benefits going to the largest corporations and rewarding companies for outsourcing jobs from the United States; and

WHEREAS, these tax policies cost ordinary taxpayers $50 billion per year; and

WHEREAS, tax breaks for corporations mean that the essential costs of maintaining the infrastructure are transferred to middle-income wage earners; and

WHEREAS, resources for public education have been seriously eroded by these anti-tax policies and policies that favor corporations and the wealthy; and

WHEREAS, corporations should be required to pay their fair share of taxes, nationally and locally; and

WHEREAS, some corporations move their headquarters offshore and incorporate in a tax haven to avoid U.S. taxes, earning billions of dollars from their United States activity, but paying little, or in many cases, no taxes to the United States:

RESOLVED, that the AFT oppose making the Bush tax cuts permanent and lobby to rescind them; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT make tax reform to close federal tax shelters and eliminate corporate welfare a legislative priority; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT  continue its lobbying efforts to ensure that resources recovered through tax reforms be used to benefit public education as well as programs that our members and most Americans rely on (e.g., environmental and consumer protection, real prescription coverage in Medicare, decreasing the national debt, making college affordable, preserving Social Security, strengthening OSHA); and

RESOLVED, that the AFT continue to work with the AFL-CIO to identify and disseminate information to its members and the general public about corporations that evade taxes; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT urge the AFL-CIO to engage its members and the general public in a campaign to promote tax policies that raise sufficient revenue to meet the needs of union members and most Americans.