ABOVE PHOTO: Rep. Lowery Brown spoke during the “Speak Out for Good Jobs Now” event held at the Arch Street United Methodist Church July 19. The event focused on creating more good jobs for working families and stopping tax breaks for large corporations and foreign companies.
State Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown spoke during the “Speak Out for Good Jobs Now” event held at the Arch Street United Methodist Church July 19.
The event focused on creating more good jobs for working families and stopping tax breaks for large corporations and foreign companies. The community meeting was sponsored by “Fight for Philly,” a grassroots organization founded to restore good jobs and corporate accountability in Philadelphia.
Lowery Brown said companies should pay their fair share of taxes, especially the Marcellus Shale drillers, who are doing record business in the Commonwealth. Gov. Tom Corbett and the Republican leadership have repeatedly said they will support no new taxes on the drillers.
“While millions of citizens struggle to put food on the table and children go hungry, it is unconscionable that the Republican leadership and Governor Corbett refuse to tax the Marcellus Shale and use that revenue to fully fund job programs which put our citizens back to work,” Lowery Brown said.
Lowery Brown said in many Philadelphia communities of color, the real unemployment rate is as high as 25 percent. The amount of underemployed workers is much higher, and significant numbers of citizens looking for work have simply given up and are not being counted.
The rally featured testimony from citizens who were unemployed, and gave the community a chance to talk to their elected leaders about programs to bring good, family-sustaining jobs to Philadelphia.
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