Jeff Reifman

Seattle Times Hits Amazon Hard, Gives Microsoft a Pass

I've had personal meetings with The Seattle Times' Executive Editor David Boardman and his journalists about Microsoft's $1.51 billion dollar Nevada tax dodge. Despite David's spoken intent to cover the issue, the paper never has.

So, I thought it was a bit surprising that The Times hit Amazon with a front page article on its poor record of corporate giving in Seattle. The article ran on April Fools Day - so perhaps this was The Seattle Times treating its readers for fools.

But seriously, doesn't paying your taxes come before corporate giving? Isn't tax dodging a bigger sin than failing to make donations to your community?

When newspapers fail to cover the problems in our tax system and the former-Microsoft employee turned legislator that contributes to the problem, then the region's safety net falls apart and we depend more heavily on corporate donations. But surely The Times should do a better job of covering this issue first.

Shame on The Seattle Times. Shame on Microsoft.

 

 

Initiative Measure 103 to End Corporate Rights in Seattle

I am lead organizer behind Seattle Initiative Measure 103 http://www.i103.org which will end corporate personhood in Seattle and elevate the rights of residents above corporate rights.

Three things you can do right now:

1) Join the Measure 103 Facebook page or sign up for our mailing list.

2) Collect petition signatures from your friends and family

3) RSVP for our Kickoff Party March 29th in the University District

What Measure 103 will do in Seattle:

• End corporate personhood and limit corporate rights
• Ban corporate spending on elections
• Ban corporate lobbying except in public forums
• Close the revolving door of employment  between elected officials and large corporations
• Provide citizen oversight of the Seattle Police Department
• Provide constitutional rights for workers
• Provide neighborhoods the right to approve major zoning changes
• Provide rights for nature
• Provide equal access to a free and open Internet, known as network neutrality

Our efforts in Seattle are part of an emerging statewide and national movement to place peoples' rights above corporate rights. 

Learn more about Measure 103

Comcast Increases Broadband Rates 50% for Seattle Customers

Open letter to the Seattle City Council about Comcast's 50% broadband price hike

To Refute Claims, Microsoft Should Disclose Its Royalty Tax Payments

Last week, after John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, wrote an editorial condemning the company's hypocritical record of tax dodging while advocating for more education funding, Jeffrey Reading, Microsoft's Senior PR Manager wrote The Herald to refute the claims Burbank made (Burbank based his article on my reporting):

"Mr. Burbank does not include sourcing to support his claims regarding Microsoft’s Nevada licensing, which is part of a very complicated piece of state tax law. Much of the information regarding this issue is misinformation primarily spread by a blogger, and no state official has ever provided any factual data supporting his claims."

I stand behind my research and all of my claims. If Microsoft wishes to prove that it paid Washington State Royalty Taxes during the years 1998 - 2010, it should disclose its worldwide licensing revenue and its Royalty Tax payments for this time period. It would be quite simple for the company to provide these two sets of numbers and would put the issue to rest once and for all (as I have done here). 

Read the full post

 

John Burbank Tells Legislature to Target Microsoft

In his Everett Herald column today, John Burbank, Executive Director of the Economic Opportunity Institute, zeroes in on Microsoft's tax dodge and its harmful effects on the state's educational system. Read more

Model Community Bill of Rights Template for Occupy Communities

It's out: We’ve published the model Community Bill of Rights template for Occupy communities that wish to begin mobilized initiative campaigns in their region. Think of the template as a menu to pick and choose what’s important in your community. It’s meant to provide a framework and a starting point, not necessarily to be used in its entirety. The text is derived from ongoing national and global work by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) such as Ecuador adding Rights for Nature to its Constitution, Pittsburgh stripping drilling corporations of corporate constitutional “rights,” such as corporate “personhood” and Spokane’s Community Bill of Rights initiative which narrowly missed passing by 1,000 votes last month. Those efforts have joined over a hundred other municipal campaigns that have driven into law local bills of rights.

WooT!

Ballard Banner Calls Attention to Microsoft's Nevada Tax Dodge

Microsoft is a huge Washington State tax dodger (about $6.1 billion dodged to date), it's just sad the banner is technically incorrect and incomplete ((photo courtesy of Geekwire):

Hypocritical, Tax-dodging Microsoft Supports Increased Sales Tax to Fund Higher Education

Apparently, Microsoft's Brad Smith thought it was safe to start making hypocritical political statements in public again ... 

Turning Occupation into Lasting Change

Update: Thanks BoingBoing & Yes Magazine for running this too!

Thomas Linzey and I are offer up our ideas to the Occupy movement on how they can convert street level momentum into lasting change.

 

Save the Internet: Envision Seattle's Net Neutrality Ordinance

Update: Great posts to this from Slashdot and BoingBoing.

Envision Seattle has posted a model legal ordinance (pdf) for communities wishing to enshrine status quo net neutrality as law. The ordinance is co-authored by the legal group that helped Pittsburgh's city council ban fracking and corporate personhood last November. The concept of local municipalities defying FCC authority is troubling to some but the group counters that FCC authority actually violates certain rights that we hold as people, and the right to govern our own communities as an element of the right to community and local self-government. If we have a 'right to internet access' or a 'right to communicate' via these pathways, there are certain actions that can be taken by government which infringe on those rights. In our view, it's up to us to create these rights frameworks, and then enforce them at higher levels.