Thursday, April 14, 2011


Is it time for a new Tea Party in Brooklyn Harbor?

According to the NYTimes Feb 1, 2011 story, The Paradox of Corporate Taxes: on Carnival Cruise Lines: “Over the last five years, the company has paid total corporate taxes — federal, state, local and foreign — equal to only 1.1 percent of its cumulative $11.3 billion in profits. Thanks to an obscure loophole in the tax code, Carnival can legally avoid most taxes. “
And an April 16, 2005 Times story announcing the company's move to Brooklyn: "executive vice president for fleet operations for the Cunard and Princess Lines, said that Carnival had decided to shift the berths of some of its best ships to Brooklyn because the Red Hook terminal was the first to be modernized by the city in a $150 million redevelopment project "
Then we have the Sept 2007 story in the Brooklyn Paper: Cruise industry fails Red Hood: “In the first year that the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal was in operation in Red Hook, the amount of cruise-related income generated in the city dropped from $992 million in 2005 to $729 million in 2006, the Cruise Line Industry Association report showed. …..— represents a loss of nearly 7,000 jobs. “
And now $12 million in public tax dollars are going for the infrastructure at the port to cleanup this mess generated by this dirty industry! A dirty industry does not even contribute tax revenue back to the community or jobs!
Something is very wrong in the way our elected officials are doing the people's business.

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