Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Artists Against Prop A


Artists Against Proposition A!

We ARE the city! • We HEART the city! • We ART the city!



Get educated and join our campaign!

● Our city is under siege by wealthy citizens protecting their own income! Proposition A on the statewide November ballot is a threat to the 1% earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas City, and would prevent any other city in the state from choosing to create an earnings tax to raise revenue. Eliminating this tax would also eliminate one-third of the income of these cities, resulting in major cuts to after school programs, senior programs, homeless services, firefighters, police, street maintenance, and more. PROP A CUTS TO THE BONE!



● Cities would have no choice but to balance the budget on the backs of residents! St. Louis and Kansas City cannot sustain these budget cuts. Making up the lost revenue would mean tripling the sales tax, or raising property taxes by 400%. Increasing the sales tax would put an unfair burden on families with modest incomes by sharply increasing the price of necessities. Raising property taxes would put an unfair burden on citizens living on fixed or moderate incomes. We need to keep our city affordable for ALL citizens. And keep in mind that for many politicians funding for the arts is first to go. PUBLIC funding for arts is what keeps our culture democratic. If we only depend on wealthy elites to fund the arts, vibrant and diverse voices are silenced.



● Only the rich will benefit from eliminating the earnings tax. The earnings tax does not penalize the middle class. The earnings tax for a person making $50,000 amounts to only $500 a year. Remember, eliminate the earnings tax and the money will have to come from somewhere else. The campaign against the tax is funded by the very wealthy, who have blanketed prime-time television with misleading ads promoting Proposition A. Don’t be fooled by this false populism.



What can you do?

● EDUCATE! Tell your friends, family, and neighbors to VOTE against Prop A on November 2! This is a statewide initiative, so ALL Missourians will vote on how St. Louis and Kansas City will balance their budgets.



● CREATE! We are looking for artists to submit images to use in our campaign. Clean, sharp, clear images. Time is short but we can make an impact! Reply artistsagainstpropa@gmail.com with your 300 dpi jpegs. The SOONER the BETTER! No later than October 18. (By sending, you are giving us the right to use this on materials and on the web. Please embed any credit you might want into the image.)



● GET INVOLVED! Want to be involved in our planning? We have all sorts of creative campaigns in the works and we need more people to make them work. Reply to this e-mail with your interest. And be sure to join our Facebook page: “Artists Against Proposition A”



For more detailed info on Proposition A, go to http://www.mobudget.org/category/13/articl/138Proposition_A_How_Missourians_Are_Harmed_by_Repeal_of_City_Earnings_Taxes

1 comment:

  1. The earnings tax does not penalize the middle class? You've got to be kidding me. The earnings tax is the most regressive tax we've got. It's the same rate if you're making minimum wage or making a million. No relief for low income workers, even though most of our poorest citizens will pay little or no federal or state income tax. But the city gives breaks to big businesses, like the Emerson electric deal, so the only ones who get a break on the earnings tax right now ARE the wealthy. The earnings tax is only 15% of the total city budget (it's 30% of the general revenue, which is only half of the money the city gets annually). Even IF city voters decide to phase it out, it would decrease gradually over 10 years.

    But Proposition A doesn't get rid of the tax. It merely gives St. Louis a chance to vote on it, and we can vote to keep it. A vote will keep politicians in check and they'll have to prove they're using the money taken from the paychecks of workers wisely.

    For me, as I suspect for many artists, $500 every year is actually a lot. It's money I could use to pay for an entire semester class, or supplies, or rent. If you're comfortable paying that year after year and not knowing what it pays for, then vote to keep the tax in place. But if it turns out the city can do without this money by cutting wasteful spending, for instance, then I think that money could be better used by people who are struggling to make ends meet and make the city a place we want to live and create in.

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