Commonwealth

Photo credit: Hazboy

Long before I moved to the Boston area in 1977 I had no love for the NY Yankees. Despite the fact that I grew up just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, my family divided it’s loyalties between the Brooklyn Dodgers — the first team to break baseball’s color barrier — and the Giants (we would walk to the Polo Grounds to watch Willie Mays’ show off his amazing talents. To our working class sensibilities, the Yankees represented the ruling class of baseball, dominating the sport with the largest team payroll year after year, and displaying arrogance both on and off the diamond.

George Steinbrenner, who inherited his wealth from his father’s shipbuilding company and bought the team from CBS in the early 1970s with money from the family business, raised the level of pin-stripe hubris to new heights. In his first 17 seasons as owner, Steinbrenner hired and fired 17 managers; skipper Billy Martin was fired five times! His temper tantrums were legendary and his willingness to doggedly pursue free agents — the Kansas City Athletics were jokingly referred to as the Yankees’ farm team — ensured a steady stream of stars. Off the field, George’s antics included illegal contributions to Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign. Apparently, Steinbrenner had an affinity for employing seedy characters to bring down one’s enemies: he once hired gambler Howie Spiro to find dirt on on Dave Winfield, his own player, during contract negotiations.

While the Wall Street Journal eulogized Steinbrenner, praising his success in turning the Yankees “into a financial powerhouse,” they declined to mention that the wealthiest team in baseball received $362 million from New York City to build the lavish new stadium (New York State Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, D-Westchester, said the taxpayers' tab for Yankee Stadium eventually will total $4 billion, including potential property tax revenue over 40 years given up in the deal). The promised benefits to the neighborhood that, due to the construction, lost their ball fields and parks — where I played as a kid — have still not been replaced as promised.

And, oh yes, George Steinbrenner died with an estate worth about $1.3 billion, not a penny of which will return to public coffers through an estate tax. Due to the tax cut package George Bush signed into law in 2001, the Estate Tax was phased out step-by-step until January 1, 2010 when it ceased to exist all together. George is the fourth billionaire in the US to die so far this year leaving all their vast wealth to their heirs and designees alone.

Fortunately, the tax cut law has a sunset provision which means that on January 1, 2011, the estate tax will be restored to its 2001 level. Of course, the folks who think the Great Recession is no reason not to push through even more tax cuts for the wealthy are fighting the sunset tooth and nail. So if like me, you think George born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-mouth Steinbrenner will not appear on your list of the top 10 human beings who passed in 2010, you might consider contacting your Senators and Representatives and telling them to restore a responsible estate tax in “honor” of the Yankee capitalist.

This summer, a Washington state coalition of businesses, labor and social justice organizations, and a few prominent civic leaders, including our friend, Bill Gates, Sr., is trying to make history. They’re putting boots on the streets to advance to the November ballot Washington’s first tax reform initiative in 40 years. The message of the initiative, I-1098, is simple: Washingtonians are suffering from the state’s budget crisis, and they are in desperate need of a fair tax code to fund core public services like education and healthcare.

One coalition member, Washington Community Action Network (also a member of UFE’s Tax Fairness Organizing Collaborative), will host a launching event for volunteers this Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 29th to start getting the word out and gathering signatures of Washington voters.

Forty thousand residents have lost basic health coverage as a result of the state’s fiscal woes. That includes thousands of seniors and disabled residents who have lost daily care, and children who may be susceptible to illness due to elimination of state-funded vaccinations. On education, a seventy percent reduction in funds to reduce class sizes is causing classrooms to bulge with more, and presumably less engaged, students. 

The passage of I-1098 would restore funding to those services while, at the same time, lowering taxes for the majority of Washington households. Sounds oxymoronic, right? That’s the beauty of a progressive tax structure – a fair share of the costs of public services are paid for by those who’ve benefitted the most from them, and who, in turn, have the most to give back to the common good. Here’s an overview of I-1098...  Read more >>

Ralph Nader discusses a growing movement of wealthy people who are "revolting against their 'wealth fraternity,' noting that some are expanding their giving into advocacy for progressive social and economic policy as well.

With Congress poised to act this year on the Bush tax cuts, a group of American millionaires, led by UFE's Responsible Wealth project, is calling for an end to the tax breaks that have benefited them, but left the rest of the country with a crippling debt and dwindling budgets for education, health and other vital services at the state and Federal levels.

Jay Fitzgerald writes a brief profile of Responsible Wealth's campaign to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in the Boston Herald. Mike Lapham mentions the importance of 2010 for this issue, as those Bush tax cuts are set to expire at year-end.

Karen Kraut of UFE's Tax Fairness Organizing Collaborative comments on the dangers of the "nationwide state budget cutting frenzy," and discusses an alternative and more responsible approach to closing states' recessionary budget gaps.

UFE's Karen Kraut and Ron Deutsch of TFOC member, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, went on the record to discuss a more sensible approach to closing state budget gaps during recession. Listen to this recent radio story for more.

Senators Kyl and Grassley seem prepared to block debate on extending unemployment benefits in order for a weakened estate tax law to become permanent, essentially holding unemployed Americans hostage as they bargain for another trillion-dollar tax giveaway to the rich.

Mike Prokosch, UFE Board member and co-author of State of the Dream 2010, visits with Mitch Jeserich on Pacifica Radio's "Letters to Washington" to discuss President Obama's budget and whether our most urgent national priorities are being met.

Tax fairness is the key to a fair economy, where the cost of maintaining a common government is shared on the basis of one's ability to pay.