Updates on our work on Tax Reform, Hunger and More

We wanted to share some recent updates on our work over the last few months:

34,000 Press Congress on Corporate Tax Loopholes

More than 34,000 Fair Share supporters like you have petitioned Congress to end tax breaks for corporate executives, as part of Fair Share’s national effort to close corporate tax loopholes and make the nation’s largest companies pay their fair share of taxes, just like small- and mid-sized businesses do.

For several years now, Fair Share members have been calling on Congress to close a variety of corporate tax loopholes, including loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas, loopholes that allow companies to move their profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes, and even loopholes that allow companies—on paper—to move their headquarters overseas, a sham that will cost us $17 billion in lost revenue over the next 10 years.

“Small businesses don’t play these tax shell games to dodge taxes—they are paying what they owe,” said Nathan Proctor, national campaign director. “Everyone should play by the same rules. We need laws that will close the loopholes that let these big companies avoid paying their taxes so we can invest in an economy that works for everyone.”

Take action to end anonymous shell companies, which some companies use to hide unsavory behaviors like tax dodging.

We asked Fair Share members to share their stories about why hunger programs work—and they responded. Some of the stories were published in Community Voices: Why Nutrition Assistance Matters, a booklet that was distributed to every member of Congress as part of a special lobby day.

One Fair Share member who came to Washington to share her story was Sherry Brennan, now a senior vice president of Fox Cable, who told members of Congress, “I’m currently a senior vice president in Fox’s television networks group, and I’ve paid more in taxes over the past 25 years than my entire family received in government assistance, not to mention donating privately to families in need and charitable organizations. We needed the proverbial leg up. We used it, and today, my brothers and I are all fully-employed taxpayers who support ourselves and our families.”

Fair Share Education Fund’s updated report, Childhood Hunger in America’s Suburbs: The Changing Geography of Poverty, is changing the way Americans think about poverty. The main finding from the report, co-authored by Frontier Group, is that, contrary to our stereotypes about childhood hunger and where it exists, the risk of childhood hunger is growing much more quickly in the suburbs than in cities or rural areas.

The report was released in five states that are important to our campaign to end childhood hunger. Three news conferences were held simultaneously—in Phoenix, Ariz., Aurora, Colo., and Richmond, Va. We attracted the attention of four TV stations, four newspapers and three radio stations. Highlights of our coverage included full-length articles in the Arizona Republic and Richmond Times-Dispatch, which are the two largest-circulation newspapers in those two states. We also received coverage on Colorado Public Radio, and on NPR affiliates in Richmond and in Tempe, Ariz. Finally, our Arizona organizer, Chris Destiche, was interviewed in studio on KAET-TV in Phoenix, the local PBS affiliate.

On the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Colorado Fair Share served notice that it will not stand idly by while some attack our right to vote and access to the ballot. Colorado Fair Share joined U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette at a news conference marking the important anniversary and demanding that the Voting Rights Act be fully restored.

Joining Rep. DeGette and Colorado Fair Share were a number of allied groups, including CoPIRG.

“Even in the age of Citizens United and Super PACs, the most powerful political tool anyone has is their vote,” said Rep. DeGette. “50 years ago, the Voting Rights Act ensured that every American of every race, color and creed could exercise that right. I am working in Congress to put a stop to efforts that are undoing the 50 years of progress that the Voting Rights Act delivered, and I call on my colleagues and on all Americans to stand up and speak out for our right to vote.”