General Dynamics (which owns Bath Iron Works) is
embarking on a statewide public relations campaign to ask the state legislature
in Maine for a
$60 million tax break over the next 20 years for its
operation in Bath.
Click here to email your Maine legislators to say
No!Already over many years General Dynamics has received more
than
$200 million in state and local tax breaks for BIW. In 2013 General
Dynamics asked for another $6 million tax break from the City of Bath, but a
local campaign persuaded the city council to reduce that to $3
million.
Now General Dynamics is back to ask an already financially
strapped state of Maine for an additional $60 million. How badly does General
Dynamics need the money? Not at all!
General Dynamics spent $9.4 billion
between 2013 and 2016 buying back its own stocks. William Lazonick, an economist
at UMASS-Lowell and an expert on stock buybacks says, "I think, as taxpayers,
we're being taken for fools. At a minimum, I would have a rule saying,
'You're not getting any subsidies if you're doing buybacks. You're showing us
you don't need the money.'"
General Dynamics last year paid CEO Phebe
Novakovic $21 million.
Click here to easily email your Maine legislators to tell them
what you'd like your money spent on instead of more riches for a mega-wealthy
weapons corporation you're already funding with federal
taxes.Before General Dynamics gets any more state taxpayer
dollars it should be required to begin a transition process to build commuter
rail systems, tidal power and offshore wind turbines to help us deal with our
real problem - global warming.
We have the right, and the
responsibility, to speak out and demand this nonsense stops now. We are
handing a collapsing nation, facing the ravages of global warming, to our
children and grandchildren. The least we can do is call upon on state
legislators to go to Augusta and say no to General Dynamics. Enough is
enough.
Let General Dynamics take back some of the extravagant pay
increases and bonuses from its top executives before it comes poor-mouthing to
our already financially barren state treasury.
After emailing your Maine
legislators,
please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your
friends in Maine.
This campaign is supported by:
Americans Who
Tell the Truth (Brooksville)
COAST (Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats,
Hancock)
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
(Bath)
Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks
Green Horizon Magazine
(Topsham)
Island Peace & Justice (Deer Isle)
Maine Green Independent
Party
Maine Peace Fund (Portland)
Maine Veterans For Peace
Maine War
Tax Resistance Resource Center (Portland)
Maine Women’s International League
for Peace & Freedom (Brunswick)
Peace & Justice Center of Eastern
Maine (Bangor)
Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County
Peninsula Peace
& Justice Center (Blue Hill)
Resources for Organizing & Social Change
(Augusta)
This work is only possible with your financial support.
Please chip in $3 now. -- The RootsAction.org
Team
P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim
Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald,
Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James
Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and
many others.
Background:
>
Bruce Gagnon: Bath Iron Works In Poor House, Asking Maine For
Welfare Check>
Providence Journal: Defense firms spend big on lucrative
stock buybacks 
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