Meet us at the Durham Farmer's Market on Monday to take part in the next Moral Monday protest in Raleigh! Be there by 3:45, bus leaves at 4 p.m.!

THEN CLICK HERE TO TAKE MORE ACTION : help us register voters and protect our voting rights!

 

FORWARD TOGETHER, NOT ONE STEP BACK! 

5:00 PM Rally at Halifax Mall behind NC General Assembly

For those who choose to petition the legislature through nonviolent civil disobedience, based on their own moral conscience, it is CRITICAL that you attend a briefing and information session beforehand at 3:00 pm.

Pullen Memorial Baptist Church
1801 Hillsborough Street
Raleigh, NC

Everyone else please meet us at Halifax Mall!

YOU DO NOT NEED TO ENGAGE IN CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE TO BE A PART OF MORAL MONDAYS!

Statement of the Durham People's Alliance Regarding Issues in the 2013-14 Budget of the City of Durham

 

Durham People's Alliance advocated a small property tax increase to cover the City's budget shortfall  for residential garbage pickup and also urged no change in basic bus fares.  We respectfully opposed the City Manager's proposal to fix the former with a new garbage fee of $1.50 per month ($18.00/year).

 

The City Council heard us and others very well regarding bus fares, but a majority of the Council took the wrong path in our view by adopting the manager's garbage fee and then increasing it to help maintain existing bus fares.  In a Council work session that effectively finalized the budget, a majority of the Council supported the Mayor's proposal to increase the garbage fee to $1.80 per month ($21.60/year) and use the revenues thus freed up in the Solid Waste Department to cover most of the hole in transit finances.

 

Durham People's Alliance continues to believe that garbage service should have been covered with a property tax increase of slightly more than a half cent ($0.0052 per $100 of property value).  We would have supported increasing that rate to $0.0063 to also cover the bus service shortfall.

 

No one likes property tax increases, but what would a rate increase of $0.0063 per $100 of value have actually meant for Durham homeowners?  Instead of $21.60 a year in garbage fees, the owner of a home valued at $100,000 would have paid $6.30.  The owner of a $200,000 home would have paid $12.60.  The owner of a $300,000 home would have paid $18.90.

 

Obviously, the property tax is more progressive in the economic sense than a flat fee.  It tracks property wealth.  The garbage fee, like all broadly applied flat fees, is regressive.  It will take a larger percentage of income from a Durham resident the lower that person's income is.

 

And since the new fee will be added to city water bills, it will worsen the problem that at least some low-income citizens face in paying on time and maintaining service.  These already hard-pressed people include families that rent houses or rent apartments in buildings of four units or fewer.

 

For these and other reasons, progressivity in taxation is a core liberal principle that People's Alliance strongly supports, and always will.  We support this principle regardless of the amount of money involved, and always will.

 

But we also recognize that conservative legislators in Washington and in Raleigh are working to starve local governments of the federal and state aid they need.  It is becoming increasingly difficult for city and county governments to deliver basic services at a reasonable cost to the public.   In fact, part of the agenda of conservative elites is to force local governments to increase sales taxes, fees, and property taxes if they want to maintain decent public services.

 

Durham People's Alliance urges the City Council to publicly identify this agenda as the cause of its fiscal problems and a major cause of the resulting social problems it has to deal with. 

 

We would welcome opportunities to support local leaders in calling for progressive taxation at the federal and state levels and for more financial assistance from those governments for local needs.  A fairer federal and state tax structure would allow us to avoid the painful choice of fees versus property taxes in paying for basic city services.

 

 

PA COORDINATOR POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT

 

The Durham People’s Alliance, Durham’s home of progressive community action, is searching for enthusiastic progressive candidates who want to work for social change in the Bull City!   The position requires 20+ hours of work per week, with potential to grow.  Candidates should have excellent administrative and organizational skills, proven communication abilities and a passion for social justice and progressive political ideas locally, regionally, and state-wide.  The duties of the staff position include:

 

• 
  Manage a range of organizational and membership development activities including:
  
  
  
  •  Coordination of membership renewals and new member recruiting;
  
  
  • Maintaining the member database and effectively using it to target communications and identify members’ areas of interest;
  
  
  • Fundraising, including a range of member and community events
  
  
  • Managing financial integrity, including general bookkeeping, preparing annual budget, and tracking budget progress, and paying bills;
  
  
  • Working with the Coordinating Committee to set meeting agendas;
  
  
  • Serve as initial point of contact for members, orient new members to the organization and help connect members who have mutual areas of interest; and
  
  
  • Help maintain the PA website, work with members to provide content for the website and otherwise identify other means of promoting PA’s mission and work to the broader community.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Communicate effectively with members and the public by:
  
  
  
  • Producing hardcopy and e-newsletters and other materials to keep members informed of and engaged in PA activities.  ;
  
  
  • Maintain a consistent and effective presence on PA’s social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter;
  
  
  • Ensuring an effective flow of information between members, the community and the Coordinating Committee.
  
  
  
  


• 
  Organize PA’s members and Durham’s broader community on priority progressive issues by:
  
  
  
  • Building and maintaining relationships with community partners and allies;
  
  
  • Helping to organize and implement a variety of community outreach events;
  
  
  • Motivating and coordinate member volunteers to act in support of PA priorities.
  
  
  
  

 

In your cover letter or resume please describe:

• Experience in the performing the duties listed above


• Experience or interest in progressive organizing


• Experience in basic computer skills:  word processing; databases; Publisher; spreadsheets.


• Experience as an organizer, including experience using social media to organize

 

 

People’s Alliance is looking for a multi-year commitment.  Salary and benefit information is available upon request.  The PA bylaws, mission statement and other information about the organization are available at www.durhampa.org.  Please send a resume including references, a writing sample and a cover letter that includes a discussion of the issue about which you are most passionate.  Send to Kate Fellman at [email protected].

 

Application deadline:              July 5, 2013