Pulte Got Taxpayer $$ to Create Jobs–But Didn’t
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Ben Horowitz from Painter and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 15, sends us this report.
In Romulus, Mich., seven community members linked arms and refused to leave the street outside the Detroit Airport Marriott, blocking a bus they believed was carrying PulteGroup’s board of directors. Minutes later, while the Romulus 7 were taken away in handcuffs, the PulteGroup board sat inside, still not held accountable for the $880M tax refund they ostensibly received for job creation.
The money came to Pulte thanks to the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009. This Act was intended to create jobs and extend benefits to the unemployed. Instead, PulteGroup is spending the cash on debt buy-downs and land, while increasing the ranks of the unemployed by laying off employees.
The Rev. Charles Williams II, who was arrested by Romulus police, summed it up this way:
I believe Pulte’s acceptance of $880 million taxpayer dollars is unethical and should be illegal. And if it takes me getting in their way of business as usual to make the Board of Directors do the right thing, then I’m willing to do that. We’re calling on Pulte shareholders and our federal legislators to make Pulte do the right thing — use the money to create jobs, or give it back.
Some 200 more union members, community activists and other allies remained outside, holding signs demanding answers and chanting:
Where are the jobs? Where is the money?
As states across the country grapple with deficits and contemplate tax cuts of their own, the Building Justice campaign by the Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) and IUPAT District Council 15 with the support of the AFL-CIO has followed PulteGroup executives across the country to remind taxpaying Americans that money for job creation needs to come with accountability. In January of 2011, activists interrupted a conference of mortgage executives being led by Debra Still, Pulte Mortgage’s director.
Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams said:
We have shown up at virtually every public event attended by Pulte executives to ask one simple question. Where did the money go that Pulte got from the federal government to create the jobs? There needs to be accountability here.
Ohio Taxpayers Will Lose Millions Under Kasich Plan
Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, is willing to cost state taxpayers millions in lost revenue solely to advance their personal political vendetta against working families and their right to bargain for good middle-class jobs.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Ohio could lose a significant portion of its $171 million in yearly federal transit money if state legislators adopt a proposal that would curtail collective bargaining powers for transit workers and other public employees.
Federal law forbids the Federal Transit Administration from dispensing money for transit operation, acquisition or improvements without Department of Labor certification that the collective bargaining rights and work conditions of affected transit employees have not been diminished.
Walker’s attacks on the freedom to bargain for nurses, teachers and EMTs would cost Wisconsin taxpayers $50 billion because of the same federal law.
Since when did losing multimillions in taxpayer money help balance a state budget?
Walker’s One Month Legacy: Job Killer
Most governors taking office hope to create jobs for their constituents.
Not Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Before his massive attack on the middle-class jobs of Wisconsin public employees, he rejected federal funding for the creation of high-speed rail that would have added more than 14,000 family-supporting jobs to his state.
Here’s the breakdown of job and income loss because of Walker’s action:
• LOST: 4,732 construction jobs.
• LOST: 9,570 permanent jobs.
• LOST: $173 million in additional Wisconsin household income.
On top of that, Walker’s move actually COST taxpayers TONS of money: By returning the $810 million in federal funding for this project, Wisconsin must pay back the federal government and contractors for work already done.
And this guy thinks he should have credibility to run a state?
The Chamber of Commerce’s Jobs Deception Campaign
Unions are popularly known as “the folks who brought you the weekend.” In contrast, the Chamber of Commerce schemes to take away employees’ weekend—along with overtime pay, the minimum wage, Buy America rules, employee’ freedom to form unions, child labor standard protections….The list is long and ugly.
So it’s farcical that today the Chamber launched a campaign estimated to run in the tens of millions of dollars to promote job creation.
The Chamber’s campaign originally started out as an attack against financial regulation—until the Chamber found out how strongly U.S. taxpayers support reining in Big Banks and the financial industry’s widespread shady practices. So the Chamber changed the packaging to purportedly focus on jobs, which in fact the American people desperately need.
Buy American Is About Building Jobs, Not Protectionism
The attack by corporations and their media mouthpieces on the Buy American provision in the economic recovery package illustrates just how far removed Big Business is from the needs of U.S. workers—and, ultimately, from what will benefit the nation.
Last night on the PBS “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” AFL-CIO international economist Thea Lee honed in on the false arguments pushed by corporate interests who mutter darkly about how Buy American provisions will lead to “trade wars.” The Buy American provision mandates that only U.S.-made goods be used in projects funded by the bill—and requires that these steps are taken in a manner consistent with U.S. international trade obligations. So screams of “protectionism” are a red-herring.
