Tell Your Maine Legislators to Reject General Dynamics' Request for $60 Million

Tell Your Maine Legislators to Reject General Dynamics' Request for $60 Million. Share this action on Facebook Share this action on Twitter 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   www.RootsAction.org