for General Dynamics

On Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 1 p.m. in Room 127 at the State House in Augusta, the Legislative Taxation Committee will hold a public hearing on L.D. 1781, which would give General Dynamics, the fifth-largest weapons corporation in the world, $60 million in corporate welfare.

How can this be in the best interest of Maine taxpayers? The state struggles to properly fund education. Health care is still not available for tens of thousands of our fellow citizens. Our roads, bridges, water and sewer systems need repairing. There is great need for education and training for living-wage jobs that have positive benefits to our society.

On the other hand, General Dynamics had $31.3 billion in revenues in 2016 and gave a healthy 9.4 percent return to investors. They’ve had so much cash on hand that between 2009 and 2016, they bought back $12.9 billion of their own stock. Stock buybacks are bad for workers and average shareholders. It favors the slick traders that can time their sales and corporate execs with pay packages tied to stock performance. And let’s not forget that just last month Congress dramatically reduced corporate taxes.

Maine can’t afford to be duped into giving General Dynamics $60 million — money that is needed here in our state.

I’d like to encourage readers to attend the public hearing and/or contact your state representative and senator to share your thoughts about L.D. 1781. Our tax dollars should meet the needs of Maine people, not satisfy the greed of wealthy special interests. Enough is enough.

Christina Rusnov

Winslow

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