[Faith & Hunger] Please endorse the better choice budget campaign by next Tuesday

[Dunleamark at aol.com]

Pasted below and attached as a Word document please find the  Better Choice 
Budget Statement of Support for 2008.  We will be releasing  the following 
statement at a press conference next Wednesday (1/16) at  12:00 in the LCA Press 
room.  We are trying to get 100 organizations  signed on before next Wednesday. 
 If you are getting this e-mail it is  because you or someone from your 
organization signed on last  year. 
 
Please sign on  today. Fill out the form and e-mail, fax, mail it to  NYFF 
ASAP! 

Thanks, 
Ron Deutsch,  NYFF  

The Better Choice for “One New  York” 
To grow  New York’s economy we must invest in New York’s working families.  
A healthy state economy requires well-educated New Yorkers, safe  communities, 
affordable health care, affordable housing and a sound  transportation 
infrastructure.    
In recent  decades, state budget policies have placed increasing pressure on 
local property  taxes and local sales taxes.   And the state government  then 
came to the rescue with a program that provides rebate checks to all  
homeowners, regardless of need, and not enough to those who are truly  overburdened by 
the increases in local taxes. 
The  Governor and the Legislature must work together to ensure that the 
2008-09 state  budget is fair to New York’s families by balancing the state budget 
in an  equitable manner that makes the state tax system fairer and begins to 
actually  reduce the pressure on the local property and sales tax bases rather 
than  shifting more of the tax burden onto the backs of low and middle income 
New  Yorkers. 
We can  promote tax fairness, strengthen local economies and help struggling 
families  by:  
Creating a Tax System that is  FAIR to all New Yorkers: The wealthiest New 
Yorkers’ pay  a much smaller percentage of their incomes in state and local 
taxes than low and  middle income working families.  Seniors on fixed incomes,  
working families and young couples are among the New Yorkers who suffer from the 
 inequities in the current state-local tax structure.  New  York’s 
policymakers must take the pressure off the property tax by restoring  some of the 
income tax system’s lost progressivity and closing corporate tax  loopholes that 
allow some of the nation’s largest corporations to avoid paying  their fair 
share of taxes. 
Strengthening Local  Communities:  Rather  than putting increased pressure on 
the local property and sales tax bases and  then providing “relief” to local 
taxpayers in the form of state rebate checks,  New York State policymakers 
must work together to reduce the pressure on local  property and sales tax bases 
by restoring the state’s commitment to “revenue  sharing” with its local 
governments and having the state government take over a  greater share of local 
education and healthcare costs.  And  the state’s STAR programs must be 
targeted to provide adequate relief to those  families that are most in need.      
It’s  time for New York State to end the special treatment of the favored few 
 by:   
    *   Closing  loopholes that allow  large, profitable corporations to 
avoid paying their fair share of state  taxes.  
    *   Stopping sweetheart  deals with  high-priced consultants who are 
being overpaid to do jobs that state workers  can do better and cheaper.  
    *   Lowering drug  prices for  state and local governments by using New 
York’s purchasing power to get a fair  deal from the drug companies.  
    *   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.  
    *   Enacting the Bigger, Better  Bottle Bill and making the beverage  
bottling industry return unclaimed bottle deposits.  
    *   Making New York's tax system  fairer and  more equitable by 
increasing the top marginal tax rates on the highest income  households.
We  support the Better Choice Budget Campaign and agree to promote its 
message  through our organization’s work on the New York State  budget: 
Organization/Organiza   ___________­__________________________
_________________________________________________________       
­
Contact Person:  ____________Contact PContact PC

Telephone:  ____________Teleph  Fax:  ____________Fax:  __Fax: 

e-mail:  ____________e-mail: e-ma

Please return to New Yorkers for  Fiscal Fairness, 212 Great Oaks Blvd., 
Albany, New York 12203.  Fax to: 518-869-8649, e-mail to _mkd67 at aol.com_ 
(mailto:mkd67 at aol.com)  or fill out the form on the web at  
_www.abetterchoicefowww.abe_ (http://www.abetterchoiceforny.org/) .
 
Ron  Deutsch
Executive Director
New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness
212 Great  Oaks Blvd.
Albany, NY 12203
(518) 452-2130
(518) 869-8649  (fax)
(518) 469-6769  (cell)







**************Start the year off right.  Easy ways to stay in shape.     
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