Here's the first in a series of
articles sent to me in response to
my article "An Internet Awakening."
FYI:
Jay.
>WORKING DRAFT 4/18/00
>
>A GREEN TAX POLICY APPROACH TO
> LOCAL-TO-GLOBAL PUBLIC FINANCE
>
>**********
>
>This policy paper is one of many being developed for a Global Peoples
>Agenda. To give input go to <www.millenniumforum.org> or
><www.GreenTax.net> contact the above or write to Earth Rights Institute,
>Box 328, Scotland, PA 17254, USA
>
>
>***********
>
>There is a troublesome and painful contradiction in the lives of many of
>us who are working for peace, justice, poverty eradication, debt
>cancellation and sustainable development. While our hearts and minds
>focus on building a better world for everyone, each day we hand over
>fistfuls of dollars to build weapons of mass destruction, fuel
>dangerous, dirty and polluting technologies, and subsidize huge
>conglomerates which concentrate the wealth of the world into the control
>of the few. Together we can end tax tyranny and align our visions and
>values with how we finance our governments.
>
>Taxation not only raises money necessary to fund government services,it
>also reflects the overall value system of a society.
>The goal of GREEN TAX POLICY is the creation of a system of public
>finance which will strengthen and maximize incentives for:
>
>* Fair distribution of wealth
>* Environmental protection
>* Basic needs production
>* Provision of adequate government services
>* Peaceful resolution of territorial conflicts
>
>Green tax reform makes a clear distinction between private property and
>common property. Private property is that which is produced by labor.
>Common property is that which is provided by nature. Green tax policy
>removes taxes from wages and other private property and increases taxes
>and user fees on common property. Reducing taxes on labor increases
>purchasing capacity, while reducing taxes on capital encourages
>efficiency. Shifting taxes to land and resource use curbs speculation
>and private profiteering in our common property and is a practical way
>to conserve and fairly share the earth.
>
>Captured in brief soundbites, *tax waste, not work* *tax bads, not
>goods* *pay for what you take, not what you make* and *polluter pays*
>become tax shift principles readily translated into voter friendly
>policy recommendations with broadbased political support.
>
>Green tax policy CUTS taxes on:
>
>* Wages and earned income
>* Productive and sustainable capital
>* Sales, especially for basic necessities
>* Homes and other buildings
>
>Green tax policy INCREASES taxes and fees on:
>
>* Land sites according to land value
>* Lands used for timber, grazing, mining
>* Emissions into air, water, or soil
>* Ocean and freshwater resources
>* Electromagnetic spectrum
>* Satellite orbital zones
>* Oil and minerals
>
>Green taxers want to ELIMINATE SUBSIDIES deemed no longer necessary,
>environmentally or socially harmful, or inequitable and unfair. Slated
>for drastic reduction or complete removal are subsidies for:
>
>* Energy production
>* Resource extraction
>* Commerce and industry
>* Agriculture and forestry
>* Weapons of mass destruction
>
>
>LOCAL-TO-GLOBAL PUBLIC FINANCE TIERS
>
>Global Education Associates and others who are working for a more
>peaceful and just world ask us to imagine the shape of the emerging
>order as a pyramid with three basic levels: a small tier at the top for
>global institutions, a greatly slimmed down second band of national
>governments, and a vast sturdy base of local governance.
>
>Green tax reform has the potential for becoming a comprehensive and
>universally accepted approach to public finance policy that can readily
>be integrated into such a three-tier system of local-to-global
>governance. Percentages of total resource revenues collected could be
>disbursed up or down these several tiers based on criteria of equity, as
>some nations and regions of the earth are better endowed with natural
>resources than others. Freedom to live or work in any part of the globe
>would also further equality of entitlement to the planet.
>
>Suitable tax bases for the funding of cities, regions, states and at the
>global level can be clearly delineated as follows:
>
>LOCAL: Surface land values, such as sites for homes, business and
>industrial activities, are well-suited to finance cities and towns.
>Progressively shifting taxes OFF OF productive efforts such as building
>homes, working and organizing businesses, and ON TO land site values
>prevents land speculation and monopoly,thus keeping land affordable
>while at the same time enabling workers to keep what they have earned.
>This type of green tax shift also would be recommended for rural areas
>where it has potential for non-coercive land reform which could underpin
>the transition to organic farming and a revitalized rural *eco-village*
>culture.
>
>REGIONAL: State, regional, or national bodies may be best constituted to
>collect user fees for forestry, mineral,oil and water resources. Precise
>configurations for the allocation of resource rentals between the state,
>regional and federal levels would vary according to the situation of
>particular nations.
>
>GLOBAL: Urgently needed is the establishment of a Global Resource Agency
>to collect user fees for transnational commons. This would include
>parking charges for satellites placed in geostationary orbits, royalties
>on minerals mined or fish caught in international waters, charges for
>exploration in or exploitation of Antartica, and use of the
>electromagnetic spectrum,
>
>Other significant global revenue sources are taxes or fees based on the
>polluter-pay principle,such as international flights or aviation
>fuel,international shipping, or dumping at sea. Proposals are being
>developed to place a tax on currency speculation. To be considered is
>whether international arms trading should be heavily taxed or completely
>abolished.
>
>The Global Resource Agency could also be responsible for monitoring the
>global commons (e.g.,the ozone shield,global forest reserves,fish,
>biodiversity) determining rules for access, issuing permits and
>collecting resource revenues. Such a body could assume substantial
>authority for levying fines and penalities for the abuse of common
>heritage resources.
>
>Revenue raised from access fees for the use of global commons could
>fund sustainable development programs, environmental restoration,
>peacekeeping activities, or low-interest loans for poverty eradication.
>Funds are also needed on the global level to finance justice
>institutions such as the World Court and the International Criminal
>Court and to facilitate policy convergence in areas such as trade,
>currency exchange, and human rights.
>
>The Global Resource Agency could also be mandated to distribute resource
>revenues equitably throughout the world as calculated by formulas based
>on population, development criteria and currency purchasing capacity.
>
>THE EARTH BELONGS TO EVERYONE
>
>It is overly simplistic to view the world as being divided between the
>rich North and the poor South. In the North there are significant
>numbers living in poverty and despair while in the South there are those
>with the riches of royalty. The structural systemic problem of the
>maldistribution of wealth is a global phenomenon. Taxes structured along
>the proposed lines would do much to level the economic playing field
>worldwide, both within and among nations. A coherent and integrated
>local-to-global green public finance system would fundamentally alter
>the status quo and would give every person a stake in the planet as a
>birthright. With basic needs securely met for all, humankind would be
>free to advance to a higher dimension of expression and realization.
>
>
>*******
>
>PLEASE FILL OUT THIS ENDORSEMENTS AND COMMENTS FORM
>
>Your Name:_____________________________
>Organization:____________________________
>Address: ________________________________
>Phone/Fax/Email:__________________________
>
>Please mark your response with an X at one of the four choices below:
>
>1. _____ I /we endorse this policy approach as it appears in the
>4/18/00 draft and have these comments to
>make:______________________________________
>
>2._____ I/we endorse this policy approach as it appears in the
>4/18/00 draft and suggest the following changes:
>_______________________________________________________________
>
>3. _____ I/we cannot endorse this policy approach as it appears in the
>4/18/00 draft unless the following changes are made:
>_________________________________
>
>4. _____ I/we cannot endorse this policy approach as it appears in the
>4/18/00 draft for the following reason(s):
>___________________________________________
>
>Please return this Response Form to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>THANK YOU!
>
>Note: First draft contents of this Green Tax Policy Approach to
>Local-to-Global Public Finance were extracted from Financing Local to
>Global Public Goods: An Integrated Green Tax Shift Perspective, a policy
>paper by Alanna Hartzok presented at the Global Institute for Taxation
>Conference on Fundamental Tax Reform sponsored by Price Waterhouse
>Coopers and St. John�s University, New York, September 30, 1999 and
>published in Taxation Alternatives for the 21st Century - Proceedings
>of the 1999 Conference.
>
>The policy paper draws from the following:
>
>*The Natural Wealth of Nations* Worldwatch Institute, David Roodman
>*Tax Shift* Northwest Environment Watch, Alan Durning & Yoram Bauman
>*Taxed out of Work and Wealth* Nicolaus Tideman & Florenz Plassman
>* An Inventory of Rent-Yielding Resources* Mason Gaffney
>*The Losses of Nations* Institute for Land Policy, Fred Harrison
>*A Citizens Guide to Environmental Tax Shifting* Friends of the Earth
>* Global Public Goods, edited by Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg, Marc A.
>Stern
>* �Brazil: The Meek Want the Earth Now,� Bulletin of the Atomic
>Scientists, Fabio L.S. Petrarolpha,
>*The United Nations: Policy and Financing Alternatives, edited by Harlan
>Cleveland, Hazel Henderson, Inge Kaul
>*UNDP at Crossroads* Earth Times, C. Gerald Fraser
>* Planet Champions, Jack Yost
>* UN Habitat II Action Agenda
>*Third World Intervention: A New Analysis* David Smiley
>*Factor 10 Club Carnoules Declaration* Wuppertal Institute
>*Overseas Development Institute , Michael Carley & Philippe Spapens
>*Sharing the World * Anil Agarwal & Sunita Narain
>*Privatizing Nature: Political Struggles for the Global Commons*,
>Michael Goldman
>*The Pollution Dividend* Peter Barnes
>*How the Other Half Dies* Susan George
>*Ecological Tax Reform* Hanno Beck in *Land Value Taxation* Kenneth
>Wenzer
>*Harnessing the Tax Code for Environmental Protection* State Tax Notes,
>J. Andrew Hoerner
>*Stateless Corporations: Lords of the Global Economy* The Nation,
>Richard J. Barnet
>*Tax Reform Follies*, Dollars & Sense, Chuck Collins & John Miller
>*The Eagle Dies on Friday* Utne Reader, David Brauer
>*Tax Waste Not Work* , Redefining Progress, M. Jeff Hammond
>*Benefits and Taxes* New Economics Foundation, James Robertson
Respectfully,
Jay Fenello,
New Media Strategies
------------------------------------
http://www.fenello.com 770-392-9480
Aligning with Purpose(sm) ... for a Better World
------------------------------------------------
"If we want to change the world, we have to
begin by changing ourselves" -- Deepak Chopra
