Category Archives: Protect the Commons
Tom Launches “Great Public Report” – First Episode on the Hoover Dam
I’ve been thinking about “public” and working to define, defend, and expand it for the past 12 years. Here is the first of a new series of webisodes I’m calling the “Great Public Report” as a way to talk about and stimulate dialog around the concept of “public.” Please watch it at our YouTube Channel and subscribe. Follow me at @tomstee and post using #MorePublic. If we don’t protect the Public, it will be taken from us.
Abolish TIFs and New Path to Economic Development for Chicago
Check out the multiple perspectives on economic development for Chicago in the April 6, 2020 issue of Crain’s Chicago Business. I call for the abolition of TIFs and a new approach to grassroots economic development. The CEO of Sterling Bay has a different idea!
Why We Need A Robust “Public”!
The utter failure of the Trump Administration to deal with the global pandemic is a stark reminder of why we need a strong, competent, nimble, and service-oriented PUBLIC sector – ready to act powerfully for the public good. Take a look at Douglas Amy’s book “Government is Good – An Unapologetic Defense of a Vital Institution.” If you want a great response to these times, then check out the movement for a Green New Deal and help make it happen!
America’s Nonprofit Sector – It’s Time to Declare War on Donald Trump and His Supporters
“I don’t want to abolish the government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” – Grover Norquest, Americans For Tax Reform, NPR interview, 2001
“Koch Brothers network planning massive spending increase for 2018” – PBS News Hour 1/29/18
“FBI Condemns Push to Release Secret Republican Memo” – New York Times 1/31/18
America’s nonprofit leaders – wake up before it’s too late.
President Trump may well be a traitor doing the bidding of Russian politicians and plutocrats. He may well be dismantling our government in order to enrich himself and his investors.
But we really don’t know until we see his income tax returns.
While we wait to see what economic interests he is serving, we are watching high crimes and misdemeanors play out in the White House the likes we have not seen since President Nixon actively sabotaged the Watergate investigations from the Oval Office.
Now President Trump is actively suborning an ongoing investigation by the FBI into his connections with Russia.
He has put people in charge of federal departments who are hostile to their purpose. The latest scandal is the resignation of Brenda Fitzgerald, the head of the Centers for Disease Control, after it was revealed that she had bought tobacco company stock AFTER she became the leader of the agency. Lest we forget, one of the jobs of the CDC is to reduce American use of tobacco products.
This President is wrecking our democracy and is attempting to return America to the wonderful 1830’s where slavery was legal and women and children were chained to the loom and there were no restrictions on business or profit seeking.
I see little hope that a Republican Congress will criticize any of this, let alone rein him in. It’s a far cry from 1973 when a bi-partisan threat of an impeachment trial in the Senate drove Richard Nixon from power (only to have him pardoned by President Ford).
It’s time to declare war on him and his supporters.
I’m calling on all nonprofits in America to take up this cause. Rise up and work to defeat the policies of Donald Trump.
Start by working to fire all of his Republican and Democratic supporters at every level of government in the 2018 elections.
Continue to work to defeat President Trump should he seek re-election in 2020. If he is not the Republican nominee in 2020, then work to elect the Democrat – whoever it is.
Start now.
A few suggestions on how you might do this.
Register people to vote. Drop EVERYTHING your agency does and collaborate across your communities to get ALL people over 18 registered. Work to overturn laws that disenfranchise folks, suppress voter turnout, or contribute to purging voters from the roles. And then work to get people to the polls to vote.
Inform your constituents and allies that you all must work together here. Educate, agitate, and activate. Hold public forums to explain how your work is being sabotaged by the Republican agenda and that soon your work will become IMPOSSIBLE to do if President Trump’s agenda is unchecked.
Hold candidate forums for offices up for decision in your jurisdiction. Demand that candidates show up and declare their intentions to support social justice and take care of people. Don’t accept the narrative that we are broke and can’t afford to fix what’s broken in America. That is plain nonsense. The United States has PLENTY of money to prepare for and wage war. We shower the wealthy with tax breaks and outright gifts of subsidy. We allow companies to offshore trillions of dollars and escape taxation. We waste trillions and don’t collect trillions of dollars.
Finally, send messages to your constituents with all this call to action. Endorse candidates who will work to repair and save America – not to fleece her and to sell her to the Russians.
But wait, won’t this endanger our nonprofit status, you ask?
Everything I want you to do is permissible under current law right up to the call for endorsing candidates. But heck, the President wants to give that privilege to churches (who, he feels, will on the whole support him and his allies) – so what are YOU waiting for?
So – go for it. Declare war on President Trump and ALL his allies.
After all, what good does it do being a nonprofit in the Capital District of “The Hunger Games”? Or in George Orwell’s dystopian “1984”? Or in Nazi Germany?
Tom Tresser
Chicago
February 1, 2018
Tom is a civic educator and public defender who has been doing grassroots democracy work in Chicago since 1990. He is the co-founder of The CivicLab (www.civiclab.us), a do-tank devoted to building power for justice. tom@tresser.com
“More Public!” Fight Song – Sing Along…
Here’s The REAL Olympic Gold!
Oh, you can’t make this stuff up! Head of Rio 2016 arrested for corruption. He had 30 pounds of gold bars worth almost $2 million. Can you imagine the level of corruption, waste and debt that Chicago would’ve wracked up?
No Games Back In The Spotlight
Seven years after No Games Chicago did our work (with no support from any major civic organization, university or community group) the 2016 Olympics have begun. Some reporters have contacted us to get our perspective on the “Battle for the Bid” and the Olympic Games. Here is an interview from Chicago News.
Help Us Fund The TIF Illumination Project!
The mainstream media in Chicago won’t cover TIFs. The aldermen are all rubber stamps who vote with the mayor 90% of the time. The university public policy shops are not interested. The downtown civic groups won’t look into TIFs. So it’s up to US to investigate and report on what happens to the almost HALF BILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY TAXES that Chicago’s TIFs suck up every year.
Help support the The TIF Illumination Project via this crowdfunding campaign today.
Let’s Illuminate Tax Increment Financing Districts by Tom Tresser
Open Letter To Chicago Candidates For Mayor
Here are some ideas for a campaign for a better Chicago.
Rallying cry: Justice. Prosperity. For all. Make Chicago a city that works for everyone – not just the insiders and the mayor’s friends. More service, innovation and economic development – from the bottom up.
Calls to action: Stop privatization. Take back the meters. Re-open the closed schools – cut class size to no more than 20 students/class. World class students = world class workers = world class economy. There is no sustainable or just way to get there other than that. Can’t build another Ferris wheel on Navy Pier to get that job done.
How to get there (source of resources and funds):
General principle: Reuse. Re-cycle and re-create. If we use everything we have – we’ll have everything we need. (borrowed from Edgar Cahn, author of “No More Throw-Away People” – creator of time dollars and time banking).
Specifically:
(1) End TIFs, empty the TIF funds = $1.7 billion
(2) Financial transaction tax = $10 billion (split between state, county, city government)
(3) Bank of Chicago patterned after Bank of North Dakota (http://banknd.nd.gov ) = Huge local impact – would stop paying huge fees to corrupt and criminal Big Banks and would finance student loans, first time homeowners, small biz start-up & expansion and even back up local government finance for infrastructure – no more parking meter deals needed!
(4) Capture vacant land for local farming and production – at roughly $20,000 per lot could turn it productive to support two full-time workers making livable wage (estimate from Kenn Dunn – http://www.cityfarmchicago.org/our-roots is a few years old and would need to be detailed)
[Could combine #3 & #4 to transfer land, foreclosed homes to homeless and working poor]
(5) Millionaire’s Real Estate Surcharge – for every property in city valued at over $5,000,000 add surcharge to property tax – $10 for every $1,000 – would need data on # properties to play with this formula to see range of options. Benefit is that ownership is not an issue – that is, if you tried to pass a personal income tax the wealthy would just register address elsewhere. This way, regardless of legal ownership of properties, the new value is extracted. Place provision in ordinance that if a currently for-profit property is suddenly “gifted” to a nonprofit the property will still be assessed based on the new formula.
(6) Look at major capital equipment expenses – such as purchasing rail cars and computers and BUILD THEM IN CHICAGO in city-owned plants. Use technical high schools and city colleges as feeder/training platforms to prepare workforce and admin staff for these ventures. DON’T EXPORT OUR DOLLARS. KEEP THEM CIRCULATING IN CHICAGO.
In addition:
(1) Conduct forensic audit on the entire city’s finance and personnel – review every hire and every contract – conducted by independent audit committee led by financial and human capital experts. Are there job descriptions, are people qualified, are they physically present at job site? Review every contract and especially every contract led without bid and under the minority allocation program which has been notoriously corrupt. Announce amnesty for ghost, patronage workers – resign now without pension and avoid prosecution. If workers are caught in our review and found to be improperly hired and not performing, they and their hiring manager will be prosecuted for theft.
(2) Review all contracts let by Public Building Commission
(3) Review all members and transactions of pension boards
(4) Review all upcoming labor contracts and strip out provisions that allow for stupid work and law suit rulings
(5) “One person one job policy” – all aldermen, city workers draw one payroll and are not permitted any other paying work
(6) Review the entire judiciary process – move to merit selection – start recruiting young people now to go to law school to be placed on bench within 6 years – if we can’t eliminate corrupt slating/election system, then start prepping our own team of young advocates to run in 2016 and beyond.
CHICAGO WORKS FOR EVERYONE.