WHEREAS:
State and local government finances were devastated by the Great Recession and fiscal crisis that began in 2007; and

WHEREAS:
Public service workers did not cause the recession or the financial crisis, but they paid a heavy price in over 650,000 lost state and local government jobs, pay cuts, furloughs, reduced retirement benefits, higher health care costs and in some places, restricted bargaining rights; and

WHEREAS:
While state revenues have begun to recover, they remain below pre-recession levels, and even today, many local governments’ finances continue to worsen; and

WHEREAS:
Even after employers cut jobs, pay and benefits for their workers, many state and local governments continued to waste money on costly consultants and other contract services, wasteful and ineffective tax breaks and excessive layers of management and political appointees; and

WHEREAS:
Rather than restoring the harmful cuts to public services, anti-worker, anti-government politicians are now using modest increases in state revenues to call for fresh rounds of costly tax cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations; and

WHEREAS:
These tax giveaways have been proven to fail at spurring economic growth and simply continue to shrink government for the short-term benefit of the wealthy and powerful and at the expense of vital public services, necessary infrastructure and stronger, sustainable and broadly shared economic growth; and

WHEREAS:
Many states are exacerbating local government problems by enacting arbitrary property tax caps and in other way tying the hands of local officials and taking power away from local communities.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will fight wrong-headed proposals to reduce state and local taxes for the wealthy and corporations while services for the needy continue to suffer cuts; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will oppose any efforts by states to limit local governments’ ability to raise the revenues needed to adequately fund public services; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME will support state and local budget reforms that cut real waste, such as unnecessary contracts and consultants, costly and ineffective tax breaks and excessive layers of management and political appointees, in order to preserve necessary funding for vital public services and the front-line workers who provide them.

SUBMITTED BY:
Anthony Gingello, President/Executive Director and Delegate
AFSCME District Council 66
New York

William Travis, President and Delegate
Mary Bartolotta, Recording Secretary and Delegate
AFSCME District Council 35
New York