Concerned with the rampant investment of public funds for private gain, the West/Southwest IAF held a “Public Funds for Public Good” seminar with Labor Economist Teresa Ghilarducci (New School), and Economist Rick McGahey (Schwartz Center). They were joined by 90 leaders representing 10 West/Southwest IAF Organizations.

West/Southwest IAF Leaders from Louisiana, Texas, Michigan, and Iowa shared how they decoded complex funding schemes that transfer millions of public dollars into private pockets. They taught how they turned these schemes into clear, teachable issues that everyday residents could act on before organizing to stop wasteful giveaways or secure community benefits agreements. 

Other panelists included Professor Heywood Sanders (Trinity University), Founding Organizer Ernesto Cortes (West/Southwest IAF), and Social Ethicist and Public Theologian Nicholas Hayes-Mota (Santa Clara University).

The panelists used historical examples and economic frameworks like rent seeking and opportunity costs to clarify how corporate tax giveaways stifle innovation, fail to deliver promises of economic growth, and crowd out better investments like flood control, street repair, or affordable housing. They drew on fundamentals of organizing, like house meetings, as methods to out-organize the misuse of public dollars at the expense of flood control, public safety, and other investments in neighborhoods and families.

The organizational leaders discussed how they will return to their communities and put into practice what they learned by understanding local power dynamics, building relationships, and organizing to use their tax dollars for shared prosperity.

San Antonio: Do Stadium Subsidies Reward Billionaires or Communities?, Forbes [pdf]