National

Tax Payer’s Dodge-Ball In Market Square


PITTSBURGH –(ENEWSPF)–April 17, 2012.  Occupy Pittsburgh will gather in Market Square on Tuesday, April 17 for a game of Tax Payer’s Dodge-Ball.  The 99% will face off against the 1% in a dodge-ball game where, like the American political economy, the odds are stacked in favor of the rich.  However, strong willed demonstrators will battle for economic justice and demand tax dodging corporations pay their fair share. 

The corporations will have added help from their friends like Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Corbett.  Corbett’s corporate record is flawless.  He refuses to tax Natural Gas Extraction, and the Delaware loophole robs Pennsylvania of $550 million in tax revenue each year.  The Corbett administration has reduced business taxes while making cuts to public health funding, and as a result 88,000 Pennsylvania children have lost access to healthcare.  Governor Corbett has proposed a $100 million dollar corporate tax cut by reducing the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax.  Meanwhile, unemployment is still over 8% in Pennsylvania, and there has been no action out of Harrisburg to address the jobs crisis. He’s pursuing further cuts to education in 2012 following last year’s cut of nearly $1 billion that caused many schools across the commonwealth to shut-down.  Public transit in Pennsylvania is collapsing because it is woefully underfunded, and we may lose our bus system in Allegheny County.  He will certainly prove to be a strong opponent of the 99% on the dodge-ball court. 

The corporate defensive-line in Harrisburg and Washington D.C. has been a great asset to the 1% team.  In 2010 Verizon paid no federal taxes, but got a rebate of $705 million.  PNC Bank also paid no taxes, and was given a $208 million dollar rebate from the federal government.  Hometown favorite, UPMC evades taxes entirely because lobbyists in Harrisburg wrote the tax code that helps them dodge the $204 million they rightfully owe. 

The first ball will be thrown at 12:00 pm and a monumental sporting event is sure to follow.   

Where:          Market Square, Downtown, Pittsburgh

When:             12:00 pm (noon), April 17 (Tax Day)

Who:               Occupy Pittsburgh and supporters

What:             A sporting game of Tax Payer’s Dodge-Ball 

Source: www.OccupyPittsburgh.org


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