Anaheim Activists for Accountability Demand Vote on Tax Giveaway!

By
Greg Diamond
– March 5, 2012Posted in: "The OC", anaheim, corporate welfare, Corporatism, democracy, development, Fresh Juice, Harry Sidhu, Jobs, OCCUPY Movement, Tax Justice, Waste

An uproar tomorrow in Anaheim?  People just won’t sit still for the hotel tax giveaway! This just in:

Anaheim -- Let People Vote!

Uh-oh -- will the 99% show up at Anaheim's City Council meeting to demand a vote on a tax giveaway? (Note: graffiti is no joke. This illustration does not endorse graffiti. Don't do it. And don't threaten the Council, either. Glowering is OK.)

The people planning this action are looking for speakers who represent the interests (and in this case the anger) of the 99% before the Anaheim City Council.  This sort if thing is what brings all sorts of people on OJB together.  If you’re interested in being one of the speakers — and they want literally dozens of them — you can contact Joanne Abuqartoumy to sign up — by phone at 714-715-8798 or by e-mail at jabuqartoumy@yahoo.com.  (Don’t abuse the kind (and authorized) provision of her contact information, please!)

ACTION ALERT!

TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2012, 5 PM

ANAHEIM CITY HALL

Let the people vote! Tell City Council to place the $158 million hotel give-away on the ballot.

  • Three members of the city council, Eastman, Murray and Sidhu, voted to give one rich developer a gift of $158 million of the people’s money to build two luxury hotels at the GardenWalk mall.
  • This egregious gift of taxpayer money is shameful.  The developer does not have to pay the city back any of the money nor does he have to pay the transient occupancy tax (TOT) that other hotels have to pay, for at least 15 years.
  • At a difficult economic time when police and fire personnel have been reduced, crime has increased, and library and park services have been cut, Anaheim cannot afford to give away precious resources that go to the city’s general fund.
  • They say jobs will be created and sales tax will increase.  There is no guarantee that any jobs created will be local jobs and their overly inflated projections are “pie in the sky” numbers that, in reality, would be miniscule compared to over $10 million per year that would be lost in the TOT give-away.

We, the people of Anaheim, wrapped in the democracy of the American flag, claim the freedom and justice that is rightfully ours.  We ARE the 99%!

“What do we want, Anaheim? Let the people vote!”

To get a seat, be sure to come early (4:30)

Anaheim City Council Chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.


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About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)