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The California Teachers Association announced yesterday that an
initiative to repeal nearly $2 billion in corporate tax breaks has garnered enough signatures to go to the November state ballot.
The Repeal Corporate Tax Loopholes Act would make the state stop giving tax breaks to large corporations, which the California Teachers Association says would help the state’s budget crisis at a time when funding for schools has been slashed by billions of dollars in the past two years.
“This initiative is not only important to schools, it’s important
to taxpayers,” teachers association vice president Dean Vogel said at a news conference at union headquarters in Burlingame Wednesday afternoon
He said that if the corporate tax breaks are not repealed, “art,
technical education and other programs will continue to be cut.”
The initiative would nullify what the association calls ill-timed
corporate tax breaks approved by the Legislature last year and stop a small number of large corporations from receiving additional tax credits.
“The theme of the California Teachers Association is creating
brighter futures,” president David Sanchez said. “Those futures are being dimmed.”
In the Bay Area, about 5,000 educators have received pink slips
among the 25,000 teachers statewide this year.
Art McGaw was one of those to receive a pink slip. He is the only
music teacher left for the Millbrae School District, and said that if he is laid off, the music program will likely end.
“Our children deserve to have every opportunity,” McGaw said.
“Music should be part of the educational experience.”
He said he expects to find out at the end of the school year
whether he can continue to teach music for the school district.
The teachers association also launched a 30-second TV
advertisement for the initiative today that will air the statement.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office opposes the initiative, saying raising taxes for corporations would reduce job creation.
“We disagree we should be raising taxes right now, which they are proposing to do,” Aaron McLear, a spokesman for the governor, said Wednesday.
He said raising taxes would prevent companies from creating as
many jobs as possible.
“Right now is the exact wrong time to discourage businesses from creating jobs.”
The teachers association announced the initiative Wednesday as part of the annual “Day of the Teacher” celebration in California. Other events were been planned statewide, including in Oakland, Santa Rosa and Fremont.
In Oakland, a “Line the Lake” rally was scheduled to feature Oakland Education Association members and community supporters at the north side of Lake Merritt where teachers were gathering with picket signs and noisemakers. The rally follows a one-day strike April 29 by members of the education association after the school district imposed a contract with no raises.
A rally also was scheduled in Santa Rosa, where the Sonoma County Education Coalition planned a rally at the courthouse against state budget cuts. Educators also planned to picket in Fremont, where 260 teacher pink slips and $27 million in program cuts have taken place.
For more information on the initiative, visit
www.CalTaxReform.org.
Laura Dudnick, Bay City News
Laura Dudnick, Bay City News
Teachers are wrong on this one. California has double digit unemployment, and raising taxes on corporations would be bad for any economic recovery.
Why don’t teachers get it? It is their unions and benefits that are responsible for teachers’ layoffs.
Just here in PUSD, had the teachers agreed to freeze step and column, no teachers layoffs would have had to take place.
And the California Teachers Association: what do they do other than bully others? Do they actually teach? NO! They are a bunch of people whose jobs depend on having a union.
Get rid of unions, stop the unreasonable pensions and benefits and the budget problems will end.
More taxes is NOT the solution. The solution is to end the unreasonable government spending.
If anything we need to raise teachers’ salary and benefits to attract and retain more talents. Contrary to what “Teachers are wrong” believes, I suggest our government to spend more on education. The money should come from the corporate world. Afterall, the corporate world benefits from having higher quality workers if our children are well educated.
Clueless, the “government” won’t have money to spend on education as more and more companies and employees leave the state. They ARE leaving California because of the unfavorable business climate here. The teacher’s union is wrong; their plan is short-sighted at best. Unions are a reflection of the problems with bloated government; leaders are feeding off the money and fears of the membership.
Actually, we could pay teachers more, IF they stuck to teaching. Instead they have become full time meddlers in all kinds of POLITICAL campaigns. CTA spends millions on TV ads on wide ranging issues…..UNrelated to education. Don’t they know we don’t CARE what CTA thinks about this, that, & the other UNrelated political issues and union bought-off CANDIDATES ! As long as teachers ALLOW themselves to be owned and manipulated by their union bosses, they must suffer the consequences. When they want to spea
Actually, we could pay teachers more, IF they stuck to teaching. Instead they have become full time meddlers in all kinds of POLITICAL campaigns. CTA spends millions on TV ads on wide ranging issues…..UNrelated to education. Don’t they know we don’t CARE what CTA thinks about this, that, & the other UNrelated political issues and union bought-off CANDIDATES ! As long as teachers ALLOW themselves to be owned and manipulated by their union bosses, they must suffer the consequences. When they want to speak up to the thugs, instead of us, their employers…they’ve made theie choices (suffer the consequences). IF they would help us curtail the excesses in OTHER areas,like OTHER union excesses (instead of working WITH them) THEN we could pay them MORE ! choices ! Maybe it’s time to get OUT of POLITICS and get back in the classroom.
“If anything we need to raise teachers’ salary and benefits to attract and retain more talents”
That is the old argument from the teachers’ union: give us, give us or we quit. Read this article, teachers are plenty and looking for work:
http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/central-falls-teachers-facing-stiff-competition?hpt=T2
The job market for teachers is tough right now, just like it is tough for many people in other professions. The private sector has taken pay cuts, etc, and people are not going around threatening to quit their jobs, they know better. Teachers are not dumb, and they would not quit their job if you did away with some of those raises and perks. If they quit, let them. Plenty of teachers are looking for work, and there will be many more come this fall.
The CTA makes a lot of money just from teachers’ dues… why don’t they give it to the schools? Do they now understand that they get paid with TAXPAYER money? If the private sector shrinks because of more unemployment and taxes, who is going to pay for all these PUBLIC employees?
When will MORE MORE MORE ever be enough for the teacher’s union? The answer is NEVER or until they and the other government employees bankrupt the state. California is closer to Greece than we think!
Corporations are already leaving California – they are going to other states where it’s easier to do business and now those other states are collecting the tax revenue we used to receive. We should actually be standing on our heads, trying to lure business back into this state.
This is just another “push out the door” for business in California and, before long, it will empty the coffers for education funding.
The CTA cares for itself. It has no policies that benefit children.
Here’s the only information I could find on the California Tax Reform Association website regarding some corporate tax reform initiative: http://caltaxreform.org/?p=139 In other words, the information is archived from almost a year ago.
Yea I know, corporate taxes are killing business… Do you know where the tax incidence on business taxes land? Yep, on you and me!
THe real tragedy is that these public unions are run by really stupid people. But the members let themselves be led around by these stupid, third world, anarchist types. You’d think teachers would be smarter than that.
The initiative is likely this one: (http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/cleared-for-circulation.htm)
1412. (09-0058, #1NS)
Repeals Recent Legislation That Would Allow Businesses to Carry Back Losses, Share Tax Credits, and Use a Sales-Based Income Calculation to Lower Taxable Income. Initiative Statute.
Summary Date: 12/14/09 | Circulation Deadline: 05/13/10 | Signatures Required: 433,971
Proponents: Robin Johansen and Karen Getman (510) 346-6200
Repeals recent legislation that would allow businesses to shift operating losses to prior tax years and that would extend the period permitted to shift operating losses to future tax years. Repeals recent legislation that would allow corporations to share tax credits with affiliated corporations. Repeals recent legislation that would allow multistate businesses to use a sales-based income calculation, rather than a combination property-, payroll- and sales-based income calculation. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Annual state revenue increase from business taxes of about $1.7 billion when fully phased in, beginning in 2011-12. (09-0058.) (Full Text)
(Doing the work that PW and Bay City News won’t do……)
You do realize that education represents 40% of the State budget. 60% of k12 funding comes from the State general fund made up of income and sales taxes. Cities and counties receive funding from property taxes. K12 only receives 20% from property taxes. Property taxes are a stable funding source. Sales and income taxes vary wildly depending on the economy. Thus k12 education funding varies wildly in a very political budget process. However, the number students in the k12 system remains the same as funding drops or rises. It’s the number of students that drive the costs. 90% of k12 expenditures are on salaries to pay to deliver the service in this people business.
You do realize that it cost more to put a child in daycare than it does to provide them an education. Average cost for preschool in California is $7,622 source: http://www.naccrra.org/docs/policy/PriceReport_detailed_tables.pdf. In Pleasanton the revenue is $5,427 source PUSD: http://206.110.20.201/Budget/Downloads/Jan5ForumLCppt.pdf. Pre-school costs 40% more and we don’t expect to educate our children.
I am not commenting on the validity of the taxing the corporations more issue. I, like most, are not a fan of taxes as long as everyone pays their fair share.
CTA is an employee bargaining group (union) but it is also a lobbyist, like the banks, utilities, and insurance companies. CTA is funded by its members and no tax monies are given to CTA. It comes out of the employees’ pocketbook. Since 90% of education spending is on people (mostly teachers) and k12 funding is a political process each year it creates a opportunity for lobbyist to vie for State funds. All of the lobby groups do this. So let’s get rid of the lobbyist, all of them, including CTA. The union won’t go away but the lobbying activities will. It’s not a level playing field to allow one group over another to lobby for State funds.
You do realize,
I’m with you on some of that. I think you shouldn’t compare costs in one category with revenue in another but compare costs in both categories. Also, the PUSD revenue number you cited looks low, like it’s only the amount of revenue limit per ADA. That leaves out the revenue the district gets for categorical programs from the State and Feds. The number should be closer to $10,000 per ADA. For example, total revenue per ADA for 2008-2009 from all sources was $10,481 according to Ed-Data (http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us/).
DCoT,
Loss carry-backs look to me like the general public gets to take on the risk of a corporation’s future performance instead of that corporation’s shareholders.
Yes lets take money away from the people who give you jobs. What college do these teachers graduate from? Cal State Idiots everywhere.
Rick,
Just like a bunch of Rats I say. First they eat up and destroy everything around them. Once that is done and there is no revenue left they turn on the weak and destroy them, and then once the weak are gone they turn on themselves and will eat their own tail…..think about it.
If you tax them, they will leave…even faster than they already are. And when they leave so do the jobs, and the people who need those jobs tend to leave also. And when they leave they TAKE THEIR CHILDREN WITH THEM which means less children to teach which means we will need less schools and less teachers. Good thinking unionheads. Isn’t this like “cutting off your nose to spite your face”.
Ahhhhhhhh, California the Greece of the United States.
I really don’t think the teachers’ union should be proposing this. Businesses don’t need another reason to leave California. It isn’t like the state is bailing out banks (that’s the federal government doing that). Fundraisers, volunteering, and local parcel taxes are much better ways to raise money for schools.
Dublin Mike is clearly a union gnat as most of his posts are socialist and Marxist in nature. Dublin Mike you are WRONG. It’s the families here that make the community and it’s OUR community that MAKES the schools, but you can kiss that goodbye because at the rate our current Leftist Mayor and liberal city counsel (except for Jerry Thorne) are working to quickly turn Pleasanton into a welfare, section 8 city of handouts.
Pleasanton… your schools are one of the KEY reasons why people move here. You should give all the teachers a 10% pay raise to thank them…duh.