When we talk about investing in public goods in Michigan, our roads and bridges are the first things that come to mind – and with good reason.
We have some of the worst roads in the nation and they’re in desperate need of repair and, in some cases, of needing to be rebuilt completely.
In addition to fixing the roads that we all need to get from place to place, there are other critical public resources that need support as well, including funding for scientific and medical research to encourage innovation and combat disease.
We can support these types of programs by making sure that everyone is paying their fair share, not just ordinary Michiganders and those living paycheck to paycheck.
I’ve worked extensively with the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association continuously trying to find funding for heart disease and cancer research. Heart disease was the leading cause of death in women and men in 2012 and the number of people who have heart disease is expected to drastically increase in the next 15 years. Ensuring adequate funding to find cures and treatments is critically important.
Unfortunately, many of the solutions being proposed to fund public resources are very one sided and focus solely on cutting investment and taking money away from critical programs to fund others. What isn’t mentioned is that it doesn’t have to be that way; there are other solutions to invest in programs that we all need like cancer research and maintaining our transportation infrastructure. We need to have a conversation about raising revenue, particularly from big corporations.
Current tax loopholes encouraged 13 Michigan Fortune 500 companies – including Dow Chemical, Stryker, Whirlpool, and Kellogg – to maintain a total of $54 billion in profits offshore in 2014. These corporations are able to dodge paying any U.S. taxes on those profits until they are brought back to the United States, which may never happen. Every year, offshore tax loopholes used by U.S. corporations cost Michigan $3.3 billion in state tax revenue. That revenue would go a long way toward funding cancer research and improving our roads.
We can’t afford any more cuts. Instead of arguing about whether to slash funding for disease and cancer research that can save lives or whether to deny more children an opportunity at a quality education – let’s instead make sure that wealthy corporations are paying their fair share by closing big and costly tax loopholes.
Large corporations have too much political power, which they’ve been using to protect these tax loopholes that allow them to avoid paying their fair share in taxes.
In fact, many big and profitable corporations actually spend more for lobbyists in Washington to protect tax loopholes than they pay in income taxes.
Our elected leaders must be accountable to ordinary people, instead of lobbyists for wealthy corporations. Our own Senator Debbie Stabenow has long been a champion for working families and ordinary Michiganders, and I’m calling on her to continue to that legacy by ensuring that corporations pay what they owe.
If we’re going to build strong communities and invest in critical programs that we all need, then corporations need to start paying their fair share. This is the conversation we need to be having.
Millie Hall is a Southfield resident and has served as the President for the Metro Detroit Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) since 1990.
