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2011 Blueprint for Economic Security
Rebuilding Prosperity
With states facing another year of unprecedented budget pressures, conservatives continue their corporate crusade through economic policies that ensure record profits for CEOs and shareholders at the expense of workers. The right’s agenda places the interests of private industry over the public as they move to advance the very same policies that crashed the economy, including reckless cuts, privatization, and tax breaks for the rich.
Progressives at the state level have a significant role to play in placing the country on a sustainable path toward recovery and prosperity by ensuring sound investments in public structures, providing protections for taxpayers, leveling the playing field for small businesses, reducing the unfair burden on moderate and low-income families, and supporting the growth of a vibrant middle class.
From the Dispatch: Rebuilding Prosperity for States and Working Families
American Attitudes Toward Inequality
Despite the decades-long project of conservatives to demonize government and promote tax cuts as the default answer to any economic situation, Americans still believe that serving the public good outweighs indulging private greed. As income inequality has grown to record levels following the economic crisis, Americans are still clear in their desire for policies that ensure fairness in our tax system. As debate over extending the Bush tax cuts raged in December 2010, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that only 1 in 3 Americans favored extending them while 58% wanted to either end the tax cuts entirely or extend them only for income below $250,000.
Americans see the nation's economic policies as favoring banks and big business over the interests of the middle class. In a July 2010 Pew poll, 74% said that government had done either a "great deal" or a "fair amount" to help banks, while 70% said the same about government's aid to large corporations. Only about 1 in 4 thought that government had done anything to help middle-class families or small businesses - with only 2% saying they had done "a great deal." In order to change public attitudes about government, progressives must prove they want to rebuild prosperity for all - not just for bankers, corporations, and the very wealthy.
Policies to Rebuild Prosperity
Progressives are championing innovative policies to protect taxpayers, promote economic security, support the interests of the middle class, and ensure sound investments in public structures, including:
- Corporate Transparency: States cannot afford to distribute enormous subsidies or award lavish contracts with nothing in return. As state governments hand out millions to corporations through tax credits, subsidies and government contracts, lawmakers must pursue efforts to track this spending and safeguard taxpayer dollars. Reforms, including restricting privatization and augmenting transparency of economic development subsidies, contracts, tax expenditures, and corporate tax breaks, will provide taxpayer protections, promote sound fiscal practices, identify inefficiencies, reduce corruption, and create budget savings.
- Development Banks: There is substantial interest in the creation of state development banks, modeled after the Bank of North Dakota, which serve as a depository for state funds and works successfully with local banks and credit unions to invest in communities, create new jobs, increase state revenues, strengthen local banks, and lower state/local government debt costs.
- Progressive Tax Reform and Revenue Generation: Critical in restricting corporate tax avoidance and nullifying certain tax shelters are policies like combined reporting. Imposing a temporary income tax surcharge to recapture tax breaks that the wealthiest households would receive from the extension of the Bush tax cuts.
For more information on Rebuilding Prosperity, contact Altaf Rahamatulla, Tax & Budget Policy Specialist at: 212-680-3116 x110 or arahamatulla@progressivestates.org
