In New York, the system for determining how legislative district lines are drawn is broken. Currently, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment uses Census population counts for determining the size of legislative districts in New York. The problem is that the Census counts people in prison as residents of the prison – instead of the communities from which they came and are most likely to return.

The vast majority of New York’s prison population come from urban communities – New York City and Upstate cities – and most are from low-income communities and communities of color.

By counting people in prison as residents of rural, white communities, the home communities of incarcerated individuals are losing their due representation.

In fact, this system of prison-based gerrymandering is a violation of the New York State Constitution, which says “For the purpose of voting, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence, …while confined in any public prison.”

Thirteen upstate counties have already taken the initiative to ignore the Census data with regard to prison populations for the purposes of drawing their own county legislative district lines. Essex County said “Persons incarcerated in state and federal correctional institutions live in a separate environment, do not participate in the life of Essex County and do not affect the social and economic character of the towns… The inclusion of these federal and state correctional facility inmates unfairly dilutes the votes or voting weight of persons residing in other towns within Essex County…”

That’s why the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York has joined the campaign to End Prison-Based Gerrymandering. Our role will consist of educating New Yorkers about the problem of prison-based gerrymandering and address misinformation about voting rights.

On December 15, 2009, the Public Policy and Education Fund and its state (New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness; Fiscal Policy Institute; Citizen Action of New York) and national (USAction, United for a Fair Economy) allies joined together to hold a press conference to make the case as to why we need a strong estate tax. The speakers – Bill Gates Sr. (the father of the Microsoft founder); Vanguard mutual fund founder John Bogle; Richard Rockefeller, a great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller and Anna Burger of SEIU made powerful statements as to the case against weakening the estate tax in this country, from the perspective both of the wealthiest Americans and those on the edge.

Bill Gates, Sr. said: “No one accumulates a fortune without the help of our society’s investments. How much wealth would exist without America’s unique property rights protections, public infrastructure, and academic institutions? We should celebrate the estate tax as an “economic opportunity recycling” program, where previous generations made investments for us and now it’s our turn to pass on the gift. Strengthening the estate tax is important to our democracy.”

John C. Bogle said, “To me, passing a stronger estate tax is a matter of ethics, of responsibility, of pride in citizenship, and it’s the right fiscal choice for our country.” He adds, “I don’t ever forget, as do some of my colleagues, that I benefited from a lot of business incentives and tax laws as I was building Vanguard Group to what it is today, and I owe some of that back.”

Anna Burger of the labor union SEIU, which represents many low-wage workers added, “Consider a wealthy family with two children. Under the current law, each child could inherit $3.5 million, tax free. That means each child would receive more, tax free, than the average worker would earn in two lifetimes. And the worker would be paying taxes on their earnings. Each of these children would receive more, tax-free, than 240 minimum wage workers would receive in a year.”

As I write this (the week before Christmas, 2009), it looks like the U.S. Senate will be unable to agree on an extension of the estate tax before the end of the year, which means that the estate tax will at least temporarily go out of existence. We will continue to do public education to make the case for the need for Congress to at least extend the current estate tax at its present levels (the first $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples is exempted from tax), so that the wealthiest Americans don’t get off scot-free from paying a share of our nation’s most urgent needs, including health care and education.

House Bill – H.R. 3962:

Senate Bill – Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act:

This campaign is to weaken the estate tax, a tax that is imposed on the transfer of property by only the wealthiest Americans to their heirs when they die. These are the same folks who just got bailed out during the last year’s economic crisis, and yet still expect to receive huge end of year bonuses while the rest of us are still looking at unemployment notices.

Now, the right-wing is revving up its campaign to eliminate or weaken the tax even further – using the opportunity presented by the expiration of the tax at the end of 2009.

They are trying to pull at our heartstrings, by giving the impression – as they did in the last fight over the estate tax during the Bush years – that average people like farmers are harmed by this tax. But here’s a few key facts:

• The tax is imposed on only 3 in a 1000 estates. During the last estate tax fight, farm interests couldn’t cite a single example of heirs being forced to sell the family farm to pay for the estate tax when challenged by the media, despite the stories circulated about this by the right wing.
• Repeal of the tax will cost the U.S. Treasury $1.3 trillion over 10 years – more than we need to fund health care reform and money that can be used for other urgent needs like education, roads, medical research and aid to cash-strapped states like New York.

We need to educate as many New Yorkers about the consequences of the policies of the Bush years, when Congress passed an astounding $2.5 trillion in tax cuts, heavily tilted towards the rich. During that period, the top 1% of wealthiest Americans – people now making at least $476,000 a year, received roughly one-third of the cuts – equivalent to getting a check of $52,122 each year from the feds. Enough is enough!

We’re going to be working for the rest of 2009 to educate organizations and average people alike about the consequences to average New Yorkers of eliminating or weakening the estate tax. Watch this page in the common weeks for details. In the meantime, download this information flyer, or email Cleo Oliver at coliver@citizenactionny.org to get involved.

Click here to download the PPT file for How to Fund Health Care and Other Human Needs.
Click here to download the PPT file for The Real Facts About Health Care Reform and Our Community.

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