NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTRAL NEW YORK CITIZENS IN ACTION, INC. –
CNY CHAPTER OF CITIZEN
ACTION OF NEW YORK
(ESTABLISHED IN 1997)
Now celebrating 19 years of community organizing, the Central New York Citizens in Action invites YOU to be part of a movement for progressive change based on shared social values. We believe in educating, advocating, and legislating for the collective good. Join us!
You can view newsletter on:
http://www.cnycia.org
https://cnycitizenaction.wordpress.com
HEADLINES
CNYCIA SEEKING VOLUNTEERS AND OFFICE SPACE
MOHAWK VALLEY PAX CHRISTI STATIONS OF
THE CROSS GOOD FRIDAY
MARCH THIS SATURDAY TO DEMAND TAX FAIRNESS
ADULT EASTER EGG HUNT TAKING PLACE AT RUTGER
PARK MANSIONS TO BENEFIT LANDMARKS
SOCIETY OF GREATER UTICA
WHY WE ARE MARCHING ON TAX DAY
UNITE! RESIST TRUMP’S GLOBAL AGENDA AND
PROTECT OUR COMMUNITIES
CNYCIA SEEKING VOLUNTEERS AND OFFICE SPACE
The Central New York Citizens in Action would like to thank all of our members, Board members, supporters, donors, and volunteers. We have received a great response from local citizens who are deeply troubled by the direction of this country and would like to fight for a progressive future.
We are seeking volunteers to help Central New York’s leading progressive organization to expand outreach and advocacy. Our group is looking for committed progressive activists for various volunteer positions. Our greatest need is for a membership/volunteer coordinator. Here are the volunteer jobs we have open:
Membership/Volunteer Coordinator
Newsletter Editor
Web Editor
Data Entry
Writers
Tweeters
Facebook Editor
Canvassing Coordinator
Canvassers
We have all kinds of volunteer positions open. Most of them are only a few hours a week.
We will be having a volunteer open house and a data entry party soon!
The Central NY CIA is also looking for office space at a central location in the Utica area. The space should be low cost or free.
Please contact us at volunteer.cnycia@gmail.com or call 315.725.0974. Thank you very much.
MOHAWK VALLEY PAX CHRISTI STATIONS OF THE CROSS GOOD FRIDAY
Event: Outdoor Living Stations of the Cross
Sponsor: Mohawk Valley Pax Christi
When: Good Friday, April 14, 2017 10 am until 12 noon
Where: Walk begins and ends at the DeSales Center 309 Genesee Street Utica
Why: to relate contemporary justice issues with events in the life of Jesus Christ during His passion and death.
The walk is held rain or shine, and there are van rides available for those who cannot walk. We will take a short walk from 10 am until 11 am and then congregate in the DeSales Center to listen to reflections by community leaders. All faiths are welcome to attend.
All are welcome to attend. It is open to people of all faiths.
We plan to walk the Oneida Square Area this year and to focus on the sufferings of refugees and migrants in our world.
Contact Jane Domingue (315 723-4506) or Sandra Wright (315 723-0261) for info
JOIN ADVOCATES IN UTICA AND SYRACUSE FOR A MARCH THIS SATURDAY TO DEMAND TAX FAIRNESS
This Saturday, April 15, advocates across the country will march on Washington, D.C. and in 180 cities, including Utica and Syracuse, to demand transparency in government and fairness in our tax code
NO BILLIONAIRE TAX CUTS!
Donald Trump: Release Your Taxes!
—————————————————————–
UTICA TAX MARCH
April 15, 2017 • 12:00 PM
Public sidewalk in front of Consumer Square, 4755 Commercial Drive, New Hartford, NY 13413 (We will be in front of Applebee’s.) It is up to us to demand a fair tax system that works for everyone, especially those with the lowest incomes. Please bring signs and stay on the public sidewalk.
——————————————————————–
SYRACUSE TAX MARCH
April 15, 2017 • 10:00 AM
Syracuse Federal Building• 100 S Clinton Street, Syracuse, NY 13204
The Tax March has a clear demand: Donald Trump must release his tax returns. Donald Trump’s tax returns will help answer the question: Does Trump have America’s best interests at heart? Without his tax returns, Americans are in the dark about Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest, his foreign entanglements, and whether he even pays any taxes at all.
Americans have worked hard to provide for their families, and have been paying more than their fair share of taxes for years, while people like Trump have worked hard to game the system.
• We need a tax system that levels the playing field so we can grow the middle class and America again.
• Instead of working for the American public, Trump, Paul Ryan, and Mitch McConnell are scheming with big corporations and the wealthy to give themselves a tax break, and take vital services away from Americans.
• Hard-working Americans are paying their fair share. But we know that Donald Trump and his Wall Street golfing buddies have exploited loophole after loophole to pay as little as they can get away with.
Thanks so much and let us know if you have any questions.
Sponsored by CNY Citizens in Action and our local, state, and national partners.
315-725-0974/cnycitizenaction@gmail.com
ADULT EASTER EGG HUNT TAKING PLACE AT RUTGER PARK MANSIONS TO BENEFIT LANDMARKS SOCIETY OF GREATER UTICA
The Landmarks Society of Greater Utica will be hosting an Adult Easter Egg Hunt at Rutger Mansion No. 3 in Utica on Saturday, April 15, 2017. Rutger Park will be covered in silver and copper eggs, filled with tickets for prizes, donated by local businesses.
The lucky hunter to find the golden egg will win a private party at the Rutger Mansion,
designed by Jordan Marcel, Inc., to use within a year (valued at $1,500.00).
“Whether you are new to the Greater Utica Area, have lived here all of your life, or
somewhere in between, I am sure you have had moments full of awe focused around
the rich history of the buildings in the footprint of our city. Sometimes, when driving
throughout Utica, or attending events, I truly wonder what I would learn if walls could
talk,” reflected Jordan Marcel Short, CEO of Jordan Marcel, Inc. and the honorary
chairperson of the Adult Easter Egg Hunt. “Thankfully, the Landmarks Society of
Greater Utica, has made it their mission to keep the stories that live in the walls of
hundreds of buildings in Utica alive. I’m excited to help them in their mission through the
Easter Egg Hunt and hope everyone will join us.”
Desserts, mimosas and spirits will be served inside the Mansion, as winners claim their prizes. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their ‘Sunday best,’ including Easter hats. A prize will be given for the best homemade decorated “Easter Bonnet.”
Check-in for the event begins at 1:00 PM. The Egg Hunt begins promptly at 2:00 PM.
Tickets are $15.00 per person, with optional upgrades to collect more eggs. Tickets can be purchased online at http://www.jordanmarceldesigns.com or at the door. The event is 21+.
Local businesses are encouraged to donate items to be included as prizes for the egg hunt. If you would like to donate to the Adult Easter Egg Hunt, please email Karen Day, VP of Fundraising Events at LandmarksKDay@aol.com.
MVCAA’s 2017 TREVA WOOD COMMUNITY ACTIVIST AWARD
Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency is pleased to announce that John Furman is the 2017 recipient of the Treva Wood Community Activist Award. The Award is presented annually to an individual who has dedicated themselves to fight for the empowerment of the low-income members of our community. This individual works tirelessly for the rights and the opportunities for success of each individual in the tradition of the late Treva Wood, past Executive Director of Mohawk Valley Community Action. The Award was established in 2005, and previous recipients are: Herbert Thorpe, Warren E. Molo, Rose White, Harry Bilton, Jr., Matt Miller, Dr. Charles Burns, Ray Lenarcic, Jawwaad Rasheed, Rev. Maria Skates, Lucille Soldato, Catherine Bullwinkle, and Rev. Maritza Perez. Mr. Furman will be presented the award as part of MVCAA’s 51stAnniversary Gala on Friday, May 12th, 6-10 pm at Hart’s Hill Inn. Tickets are $75 each and are available online at http://www.mvcaa.com/gala or by calling 315-624-9930.
Mr. Furman’s involvement in social justice activism is extensive. He is President of Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc., a multi-issue public interest advocacy organization that works with issues such as equitable funding for public schools, health care, living wages, climate justice, and publicly funded elections. Mr. Furman also serves as a leader of the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison Working Families Party chapter and is a member of the Central New York Labor Council. He participates in the Global Social Economy Forum, an international network that aims to foster public-private community partnerships for an inclusive, equitable and human centered economy. Mr. Furman has taught workshops on grant writing, community collaboration, civic engagement, housing and community development, social enterprise, and volunteer mobilization.
Mr. Furman holds a position at the Utica Municipal Housing Authority. He represents the Housing Authority on the Mohawk Valley Anti-Poverty Task Force, Mohawk Valley Housing and Homeless Coalition, Refugee Service Providers Consortium; Herkimer, Madison, Oneida Emerging Worker Committee, Oneida County Health Coalition, and the Lead-Free Mohawk Valley Coalition. He secured funding and managed the Housing Authority’s HOPE VI community revitalization project in the Cornhill neighborhood, which resulted in the development of 159 units. He has successfully garnered funds and helped to manage the Housing Authority’s homeownership program, which produced 58 units. Mr. Furman has obtained over $3,000,000 in new funding for the Housing Authority’s resident service programs.
UC GOV DEPARTMENT NEW HAPPENINGS
I wanted to briefly share three things that might be of interest. First, I recently founded The Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research. The center seeks to serve students, citizens, journalists, and scholars by providing research, commentary, and analysis of state, national, and international politics. The Center’s website (ucpublicaffairs.com) publishes articles daily from a team of contributors (Political Scientists, journalists, & government practitioners) locally and throughout the country and the world. The Center is non-partisan and non-profit.
Second, the Center just launched a new series, 50 Takes on Trump, in which fifty different Political Scientists succinctly analyze how President Trump has been received in their home state. The series began last Wednesday and will continue each week for the next year.
Third, an OpEd of mine entitled How Refugee Limits Could Hurt GOP Rustbelt Reps was recently published by The Hill. It focuses on the electoral politics of refugees in NY-22 and related divisions within the Republican Party. You can read it here: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/327254-how-refugee-limits-could-hurt-gop-rust-belt-reps
Submitted by Dr. Luke E. Perry, Assistant Professor of Government, Utica College
WHY WE ARE MARCHING ON TAX DAY
· We are demanding that Donald Trump release his tax returns because we need to know if the president is personally profiting from his tax plan and other policies he is proposing. We want know if he has contributed his fair share of taxes. And we want to know what financial entanglements and conflicts of interest he has with foreign countries, such as Russia.
· We are marching to oppose Trump’s $6 trillion tax plan. It’s a massive giveaway mostly to the rich and big corporations. We need to end the rigged system, not make it worse as Trump would do.
· We are marching to demand that Congress require that the rich and corporations start paying their fair share of taxes so that we can create millions of good-paying jobs and an economy that works for all of us.
TRUMP’S TAX RETURNS
· Donald Trump is the first president in 40 years, Republican or Democrat, to refuse to release his tax returns. We need Trump’s tax returns to see whether he’s supporting the nation he’s supposed to be leading by paying his fair share of taxes.
· We already know he’s paid little or no federal income taxes in five separate years.
· We need Trump’s tax returns to see if he’s really serving the American people as president, or if he is just using his office to line his own pockets.
· We need Trump’s tax returns to see what financial ties he has in foreign countries, especially in Russia. Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., once declared and I quote, “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets.” He also boasted that the Trump organization has benefitted from “a lot of money pouring in from Russia.” That’s a quote.
· We need Trump’s tax returns to see how he would personally benefit from his proposed tax plan that’s a huge giveaway to the wealthy and well-connected.
· We already know his business empire would be among the biggest winners from his proposed business tax cuts.
· We already know that Trump’s heirs could come out billions of dollars richer by eliminating the estate tax, which Trump wants to do.
· We must reveal the truth about Trump’s tax plan by forcing him to reveal the truth about his own taxes. This takes all of us working together, just as we did when we defeated Trumpcare together.
· That’s why there is legislation in Congress right now that would force presidents, like Donald Trump, and presidential candidates to release their taxes.
· That’s why there are bills in dozens of state legislatures that would deny candidates running for president access to state election ballots if they don’t release their tax returns.
· And that’s why we’re marching today, April 15 in Washington, D.C. and in 100 communities all across the country.
· We’re demanding that Trump release his tax returns. We’re demanding that Congress reject his massive tax giveaway to the rich and corporations, just like it rejected Trumpcare. We’re demanding an end to a rigged tax system that benefits the rich and powerful and Wall Street at the expense of struggling working people.
· And we’re demanding increased investment for our kids, our families and our communities—not more cuts, not more disinvestments, not more neglect and not more shrunken opportunities.
TRUMP’S TAX PLAN
· While Trump’s health care plan was a $600 billion tax giveaway—mostly to the rich and corporations—his tax plan is a $6 TRILLION-dollar giveaway. His tax plan gives away 10 times more in tax breaks than his health care plan did.
· Under Trump’s tax plan, the super-rich in his tax bracket would each get a tax cut of over one million dollars a year. The Top 1% would get a tax break of $200,000 every year. Meanwhile, people making $50,000 a year would get a tax break of about one dollar a day. And nine million working families—including more than half of all single parents—would actually pay more in taxes.
· Trump wants to slash taxes on big, profitable corporations. But many of these corporations – like General Electric, Verizon, Boeing and others – already pay less in taxes some years than each of you pay. They actually pay no federal income taxes at all in some years because of all the loopholes in the tax code.
· Wall Street hedge funds and fancy law firms will have their tax rates cut in half by Trump. And that will personally save Trump millions of dollars – assuming he pays any taxes now.
· Trump will keep giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs and profits offshore. In fact, his tax plan will give a $500 billion tax break to corporations hiding profits in offshore tax havens. Imagine what we could do with $500 billion …
· Trump wants to abolish the estate tax, making our nation’s wealth divide even wider. Those who inherit great family fortunes, like Trump’s kids, will get richer and richer.
INVESTMENTS NOT TAX CUTS
· Trumpcare cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations while taking health care away from millions of working families. Trump’s tax plan will cut taxes on the rich and corporations even more, paid for by taking away even more from working people.
· To pay for Trump’s $6 trillion tax giveaway to the rich and powerful, he’ll have to severely cut the public services and benefits that working families rely on to get by and get ahead. There’ll be more potholes and traffic jams, fewer teachers and cops. Less assistance for home heating and college tuition. Less research into new medical cures. Dirtier air and water. Trump will make retirement less secure by undermining Medicare and trying to destabilize Medicaid again. That means fewer families will be able to afford nursing home care for seniors and fewer people with disabilities will be able to afford home care. Rich people living in mansions will get bigger tax loopholes while low-income families living in subsidized housing will get an eviction notice.
· Communities of color, women and children will suffer the most from Trump’s huge budget cuts.
· America’s working families shouldn’t endure deteriorating services and disinvestment from our communities. They should be supported with greater public investment: in roads, schools, health care, retirement security and more. That kind of investment in our communities would create millions of good-paying jobs and start to create an economy that works for all of us, not just those at the top.
· The need for that kind of public investment means the wealthy and corporations need to be paying more in taxes, not less. They need to pay their fair share.
Working together today, April 15, and in the weeks and months to come, we can drown out the fake news about Donald Trump’s immoral tax plan by revealing the truth, just like we did with his immoral health care plan. And the first step to getting at the truth about Donald Trump’s tax plan is getting at Donald Trump’s tax returns. That’s why we’re out here today—and we won’t go away, Donald, until we get them!
TAX MARCH SIGN SLOGANS
Please make a sign and bring it to the Tax March!
Donald Trump:
Release Your Taxes!
We Have a Right to Know!
What Are You Hiding?
Does
DONALD DUCK
His Taxes?
Oh Yeah—We Care.
Donald: How
Much Would
YOUR TAX PLAN
Reduce
YOUR TAXES?
Was This Another
ZERO TAX YEAR
For You, Donald?
Why Are You PUTIN Off
Releasing Your Taxes?
Why Aren’t You RUSSIAN
To Release Your Taxes?
Even NIXON Released His Taxes
Maybe You Could
TWEET US
Your Returns
No $6 Trillion Tax Giveaway
to Wealthy & Corporations!
SIGN SLOGANS
Rich & Corporations:
PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE!
NO BILLIONAIRE
TAX CUTS!
STOP CORPORATE
TAX DODGING
NO CORPORATE
TAX CUTS!
CLOSE CORPORATE
TAX LOOPHOLES
END OFFSHORE TAX BREAKS
Big Corp.’s Don’t Need
More Tax Breaks—
They Need to Pay Their Taxes!
Corp.’s with Offshore Profits:
PAY $750 BILLION YOU
OWE IN TAXES!
Cut Corporate Tax Dodging
—Not Corporate Tax Rates!
Protect the Estate Tax,
Not Family Dynasties
Trumpcare:
$600 Billion in Tax Breaks
24 Million Lose Health Care
“Unite! Resist Trump’s Global Agenda and Protect Our Communities”
Talk by Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies author, activist and analyst
Thursday, April 20 from 7-9pm
Bishop Harrison Center, 1342 Lancaster Ave., Syracuse
Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, comes to Syracuse on April 20 to talk about the global effects of Trump’s budget and foreign policy, as well as the movement to resist increased militarism – a movement that, she argues, requires us to also fight against racism and materialism.
As a scholar and activist, Phyllis is part of a coalition called The Majority, which just announced its first national campaign, Beyond the Moment, which runs from April 4th (the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech) through May 1st (International Workers’ Day). It aims to continue the work of making connections between all marginalized groups and the systems that oppress them. She will discuss the group’s newly released statement, which calls for #No$54BillionforWar in response to the Trump administration’s proposed $54 billion military budget increase (an increase of almost 10% from about $598 billion in 2015).
The Syracuse Peace Council will join in the campaign.
Read Phyllis’ most recent article, with Stephen Miles, ” Building a New Movement Against Militarism” here. They conclude:
“Dr. King taught us that to fight against any of the three triplets—the evils of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism—requires fighting against them all. His legacy continues to demand that we link our challenge to all three; we can’t leave any out. How we build a movement to carry out that linkage will determine whether the current rising Resistance answers Dr. King’s demand.”
Two of her books, “Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror” (2015) and “Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict – 6th Edition” (2015) will be for sale at this event.
This event is free and open to the public. Download event flyers from the event page here. RSVP on Facebook here.
Sponsored by the Syracuse Peace Council. For more info contact us at (315) 472-5478, spc@peacecouncil.net
Central New York Citizens in Action, Inc. Blog 
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