Friends:
Please make a donation to help fund our legal appeal (the filing fee is $400) and to help build this struggle to expose billion dollar tax give aways to GM. Send a donation to Moratorium Now Coalition, 5920 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202 or use VENMO to David Sole (note it is for FOIA appeal). Read more below –
All eyes are on General Motors with the start of the UAW strike against the giant corporation. The Moratorium Now Coalition has been in court since GM announced the planned closing of the Hamtramck Assembly plant. In addition to not paying federal taxes and having been bailed out of bankruptcy by the federal government, General Motors also pays little to no state taxes.
In the past 10 years GM has received several MEGA tax credits from the State of Michigan where GM gets billions of tax credits over the next 20 years, in exchange for vague promises to maintain jobs and not relocate plants. For every year that GM makes profits in Michigan, they can claim this credit and pay no state taxes.
Last February the Moratorium Now Coalition submitted a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to the Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF), a quasi-governmental agency filled with corporate representatives, to expose the amount of these credits. Our FOIA was denied by Judge Christopher Murray of the Michigan Court of Claims saying it was “private proprietary information.” We don’t think how our tax dollars are used (or misused) should be kept a secret from the public.
We want to take the case up on appeal. The Michigan Strategic Fund also doles out hundreds of millions in “tax captures” to developers like Gilbert, Ilitch and Ford. So we have a government agency privately giving billions in tax breaks to huge corporations while our schools, roads and services deteriorate.
We are confident we can win this appeal which would shed light on how, every day, corporations, banks and developers, are being given billions in tax breaks, incentives and captures. These tax giveaways are administered by shadowy government agencies shielded from the public view at the same time there are no funds to repair the schools, insure safe water or fix our roads.
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 