WELLS FARGO ADVISORS TAX BREAKS
The upcoming election for Alderwoman of St. Louis City’s 6th Ward is critically important. Voters need to know about their candidates so they can make an educated decision on March 5.
Our city suffers from a number of problems whose root cause I believe can be tied to our city’s inability to adequately fund our public school system. During my time as an activist in St. Louis, all too often I have witnessed corporations failing to pay their fair share of taxes. Our city’s willingness to provide lucrative incentives to large corporations in the form of property tax abatement is just one of the reasons the St. Louis City Public School System remains underfunded.
Over the course of my campaign, I have remained steadfast in my commitment to you to not accept a single dime from corporations looking to influence local politicians.
In July of last year Wells Fargo Advisors worked with the Alderwoman of the 6th Ward to garner support with the St. Louis City Board of Alderman for an incentive program consisting of a 10 Year Personal Property Tax Exemption effectively underfunding the city’s personal property tax account by millions of dollars. Recall that the St. Louis City Public School System relies on property tax revenue to fund their operations.
Please take the time to review the following documents paying particular attention to the document titled “Wells Fargo Advisors Proposed Incentive Schedule”. Like many corporations in St. Louis, Wells Fargo Advisors know that Aldermen/women have significant discretion over the flow of your tax dollars within their ward; that being said it’s really not all that surprising that Wells Fargo Advisors has listed as their first activity: “Obtain letter of support from Alderwoman”.
Implementing Participatory Budgeting commits my campaign for Alderwoman to changing business as usual in the 6th Ward. As one of my constituents, I would of course listen to the concerns of Wells Fargo Advisors and try and understand why they feel they don’t have to pay their fair share in taxes.
As their Alderwoman, I would agree to take their proposal, seeking my support for a multi-year property tax exemption, back to the residents of the 6th Ward. A delegate would be assigned to the Wells Fargo proposal and they would be responsible for developing the proposal and presenting it to the 6th Ward. Their proposal along with other proposals would be voted on using various tactics such as “roving voting” or “multi-day voting”. If, after all the votes are tallied, the residents of the 6th Ward accept Wells Fargo Advisors proposal, as their elected representative, I would offer my support in the form of a letter.
The choice is yours. You know what’s best for your ward. I am here to serve you. Which Alderman/woman do you think Wells Fargo Advisors will chose to serve them?
Vote on March 5. A vote for Michelle Witthaus is a vote for true democracy.
CORPORATIONS MUST PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE
I am taking a critical look at how city tax dollars are flowing into large corporations in our ward and how we can direct that stream back into our neighborhoods for revitalization projects, small businesses, and schools. Our ability to provide sustainable economic growth and top of the line education depends on us being responsible stewards of our tax dollars and that means having a real say in how they are spent. This is another reason I support participatory budgeting in the 6th ward.
Occupy protesters target Peabody shareholder meeting in St. Louis
Thanks for engaging with our campaign Ms. Norris. I figured our campaign wouldn’t receive any money from Wells Fargo based on my activism…but 30% is quite a bit.
Interesting…I clicked on that link at the end and went to the Missouri Ethics Commission. It looks like Wells Fargo has only donated to Ingrassia’s campaign…nothing for Jones or you. Wonder what’s going on? And their donations aren’t anything to sneeze at…if my numbers are correct, nearly 30% of Ingrassia’s funding has come from Wells.