Full Text
Agenda Item No. 5(E) RESOLUTION NO. 2012-XX RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF EL CERRITO CALLING ON CONGRESS TO REDUCE MILITARY SPENDING AND REDIRECT FUNDS TO DOMESTIC PRIORITIES WHEREAS, our nation faces its most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression impacting budgets at the state and local levels; and WHEREAS, approximately 59% of every federal discretionary tax dollar in fiscal year 2012 is spent to pay for past, present and future military expenditures; and WHEREAS, the Pentagon budget for the 2012 fiscal year is over $700 Billion and military spending by other agencies, such as the Veteran's Administration, State Department and the Department of Energy, plus interest on the war debt, raises the total military spending to almost $1 Trillion annually; and WHEREAS, as of June, 2012 the total cost of the Afghanistan war to Americans is estimated to be over $542 Billion, of which taxpayers in debt-ridden California will have paid over $66.5 Billion. The share paid by Contra Costa County taxpayers is over $2.4 Billion since 2001; and WHEREAS, more than 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan and more than 15,300 have been wounded, a number that does not include those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury diagnosed after returning home, approximately 28,000 per year according to Department of Defense reports; and WHEREAS, the suicide rate among the nation's active-duty military personnel this year eclipses the number of troops dying in battle - almost one per day - and is on pace to set a record annual high since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than a decade ago; and WHEREAS, there are more than 800 U.S. military bases overseas with more than 200,000 troops (not including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan), costing more than $250 billion per year. There are plans to spend an additional $185 billion over the next ten years to expand and modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The budget includes weapons systems that even the Pentagon doesn't want. There are scores of other Pentagon programs that are far in excess of what is needed to actually defend our country. The U.S. spends more than fourteen countries combined - 42% of all military spending in the world; and WHEREAS, education, medical care, housing, other essential public services, infrastructure repairs, and family and private sector financing in our city, school district, county and throughout the state have been cut while financial resources have been diverted from the constructive economy to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and other military spending. NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the City Council of the City of El Cerrito that it hereby expresses its concerns about how the national defense budget and spending impacts not only our nation but also the residents of the City of El Cerrito. The City Council supports public discussion and dialogue about the costs of excessive military spending within the context of national and local priorities, what each resident must pay and the permanent disability and loss of life experienced by local residents who willingly serve in the armed forces for the safety and welfare of our Country. Page 1 of 2 ---PAGE BREAK--- Agenda Item No. S(E) BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that local, regional and national impacts include a lack of funding and valuable human resources and expertise available for local and regional county needs to address everyday issues including investment and maintenance of infrastructure, transportation, housing, education, social and medical services, energy, environmental and economic sustainability and meaningful employment opportunities. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of El Cerrito calls on Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congressional Representative Garamendi to oppose further funding of the war in Afghanistan, except as needed to affect the safe rapid withdrawal of all military forces and contractors, and urges them to take a leadership position in Congress to bring our troops safely home, substantially reduce overall military spending, and redirect our federal tax dollars to the pressing educational, employment, health, housing, nutritional, infrastructure, energy, and environmental needs of our city, state and country and support federal funding for the over two million new Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans- particularly the thousands who have come home disabled or otherwise physically or mentally wounded- to ensure they receive health care, housing, jobs, education and other supportive services they deserve. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City Clerk is directed to forward copies of this resolution to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Representative Garamendi with a request that they act and vote in accord with its provisions. I CERTIFY that at a regular meeting on July_, 2012, that the City Council of the City ofEl Cerrito passed this resolution by the following vote: AYES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: NOES: COUNCIL MEMBERS: ABSENT: COUNCIL MEMBERS: IN WITNESS of this action, I sign this document and affix the corporate seal of the City ofEl Cerrito on July, , 2012. Cheryl Morse, City Clerk APPROVED: William C. Jones III, Mayor Page 2 of 2 ---PAGE BREAK--- Senior ActiotiNetwork"SF~; South Bay Laboi" Council Temple United Methodist Church Therapists for Peace andjustis~ Tri Valley Cares - Tri Valley Democr(ltic ClUb Uhitariaif Universalistsfor Peac_e~SF; c . us Peace Council , · > Veterans forJ)eace,Ber[feley Chapi:~~i - Veterans for Peace, SF Chapter 69 _ - - Vukani Mawethli Ch(J[r . · · Wellston€ DemocratiC Renewalclub - West County Taxies Coalition Western States Legal Foundation Women for Genuine Security· World Rainforest Fund Bay Area New Priorities Campaign P.O. Box 19309 Oakland 64619 [EMAIL REDACTED] www.newprioritiescampaign.org To: William C. Jones, El Cerrito Mayor [EMAIL REDACTED] Cc: Cheryl Morse, El Cerrito City Clerk [EMAIL REDACTED] Subject: New Priorities Resolution June 29, 2012 The attached information is forwarded to you at the request of the El Cerrito New Priorities Campaign Working Group. This group of area residents includes members of the El Cerrito Democratic Club, East Bay Peace Action, and U.S. Labor Against War. Representatives of the group have met with the El Cerrito Human Relations Commission who recommends the Council's consideration of the Resolution Calling on Congress to Reduce Military Spending and Redirect Funds to Domestic Priorities. A relevant DVD titled War and Taxes can be viewed online at www.uslaboragainstwar.org or a copy is available from the City Clerk. Concerning whether the issues addressed by this resolution are appropriate matters for consideration and action by the City Council, your attention is called to a key legal precedent relating to citizens' right to be represented by local government. In the 1967 Farley v. Healy, 67 Cal.2d325 decision the California Supreme Court held: representatives of local communities, boards of supervisors and city councils have traditionally made declarations of policy matters of concern to the community whether or not they had power to effectuate such declarations by binding legislation. Indeed one of the purposes of local government is to represent its citizens before the Congress, the Legislature and administrative agencies in matters over which local government has no power. Even in matters of foreign policy it is not unusual for local legislative bodies to make their positions known.'' The Working Group requests the resolution be scheduled for the July 17 City Council meeting agenda. Please confirm their request vial email to AI Miller [EMAIL REDACTED]. Thank you for your attention and assistance. Yours Truly, Michael Eisenscher, Coordinator [EMAIL REDACTED] Attachments: Draft Resolution with Source Citations; Fact Sheets: Job Creation, Not Military Spending; Employment Effects of Military/Domestic Spending; War Spending/Defense & Social Need in Contra Costa County. ---PAGE BREAK--- Resolution Calling on Congress to Reduce Military Spending and Redirect Funds to Domestic Priorities Submitted to the El Cerrito City Council, July 17,2012 WHEREAS, our nation faces its most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression impacting budgets at the state and local levels; and, WHEREAS, approximately 59o/o of every federal discretionary tax dollar in fiscal year 2012 is spent to pay for past, present and future military expenditures and, WHEREAS, the Pentagon budget for the 2012 fiscal year is over $700 Billion and military spending by other agencies, such as the Veteran's Administration, State Department and the Department of Energy, plus interest on the war debt, raises the total military spending to almost $1 Trillion annually and, WHEREAS, as of june, 2012 the total cost of the Afghanistan war to Americans is estimated to be over $542 Billion, of which taxpayers in debt-ridden California will have paid over $66.5 Billion in, and the share paid by Contra Costa County taxpayers is over $2.4 Billion since 2001 and, WHEREAS, more than 2,000 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan and more than 15,300 have been wounded, a number that does not include those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury diagnosed after returning home-28,000 per year according to Department of Defense reports [ 4 and, WHEREAS, the suicide rate among the nation's active-duty military personnel this year eclipses the number of troops dying in battle - almost one per day - and is on pace to set a record annual high since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan more than a decade ago and. WHEREAS, there are more than 800 U.S. military bases overseas with more than 200,000 troops (not including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan), costing more that $250 billion per year; the administration plans to spend an additional $185 billion over the next 10 years to expand and modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex; the budget includes weapons systems that even the Pentagon doesn't want; there are scores of other Pentagon programs that are far in excess of what is needed to actually defend our country; and the U.S. spends more than the next 14 countries combined-- 42o/o of all military spending in the world and ---PAGE BREAK--- Resolution Calling on Congress to Reduce Military Spending and Redirect Funds to Domestic Priorities (page 2 Of 3) WHEREAS, education, medical care, housing, other essential public services, infrastructure repairs, and family and private sector financing in our city, school district, county and throughout the state have been cut while our financial resources have been diverted from the constructive economy to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and other military spending; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the El Cerrito City Council calls on Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Representative Garamendi to oppose further funding of the war in Afghanistan, except as needed to affect the safe rapid withdrawal of all military forces and contractors, and urges them to take leadership in Congress to bring our troops safely home, substantially reduce overall military spending, and redirect our federal tax dollars to the pressing educational, employment, health, housing, nutritional, infrastructure, energy, and environmental needs of our city, state and country; BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council of El Cerrito supports public discussion and dialogue about the cost of excessive military spending; and, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we call on our Congressional delegation to support federal funding for the over 2 million new Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans - particularly the thousands who have come home disabled or otherwise physically or mentally wounded -to ensure they receive health care, housing, jobs, education and other supportive services they deserve; and, BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this council shall forward copies of this resolution to Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Representative Garamendi with a request that they act and vote in accord with its provisions. Source citations: 1. "New Priorities for a New Economy" Slide Show (02:10) produced by the New Priorities Campaign (http://tinyurl.com/82ajbau); computed by the National Priorities Project (http://nationalpriorities.org/en/analysis/2011/presidents-budget- fy2012/expenditures/) 59o/o in FY2012; 57o/o in FY2013. Discretionary spending is that portion of the federal budget authorized annually by Congress. Mandatory spending is that portion determined by law without annual Congressional action. 2. Stiglitz & Bilmes, The Three Trillion Dollar War, http://www.threetrillondollarwar.org ---PAGE BREAK--- Resolution Calling on Congress to Reduce Military Spending and Redirect Funds to Domestic Priorities (page 3 Of3) 3. National Priorities Project, Cost ofWar, http://www.costofwar.com 4. iCasualties.org, Operation Enduring Freedom/Afghanistan. http://icasualties.org 5. Timothy Williams, NY Times, June lOth, 2012 6. • More than 800 bases overseas, with more than 200,000 troops at a cost of more than $250 billion per year: Joan Roelofs, Counterpunch 2/19-21/2010 (http://www.counterpunch.org/2010/02/19/bases-of-empire/) Nick Turse, TomDispatch 91/09/2011 (http://www.tomdispatch.comlpost/175338/tomgram: nick turse, the pentagon) • Weapons systems the Pentagon doesn't want: "Pentagon, Conservative Worldviews Clash on House Floor", National Security Network, May 16, 2012 (http://nsnetwork.org/pentagon-conservative-worldviews-clash-on-house-floor/) "Senate Dodges Obama Veto Threat" by "House Rejects Agreed Upon Funding Level for Pentagon" by Coalition on Human Needs, May 31, 2012 (http://www.chn.org!humanneeds/12053la.html) • Plan to modernize nuclear arsenal at cost of $185 billion over ten years - Chris Hellman, TomDispatch 3/1/11: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175361/tomgram o/o3A chris bellman, $1.2 trillion for national security/ • U.S. military spending greater than next 14 countries combined (http://www.globalissues.org!article/75/world-military-spending - In Context USMilitarySpendingV ersusRestofthe World), 42o/o of global military spending - Stockholm International Peace Research Institute - (http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending) Research performed by Michael Eisenscher, National Coordinator, U.S. Labor Against the War (USLA W) [EMAIL REDACTED] http://uslaboragainstwar.org ---PAGE BREAK--- JOB CREATION: SPEND$$ ON CIVILIAN JOBS NOT MILITARY "Military spending, on the other hand, amounts to a regressive tax which requires the vast majority of working people to subsidize what President Eisenhower decried as "the military-industrial complex"-- that is, high tech companies, weapons manufacturers, and the new proliferation of mercenary organizations Dan Kovalik, Human and Labor Rights lawyer ~ 0 "C ~ 0 G: ~ u c: g ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-kovalik/the-deafening-silence-abo b 793712.html ) Military spending by the federal government creates far fewer jobs than spending equivalent amounts on civilian jobs in education, health care or clean energy, according to a study by Robert Pollin & Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute (PERl), University of Massachusetts-Amherst rrhe U.S. The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: An Updated Analysis"] MORE JOBS PER DOLLAR WHEN SPENT ON SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTIVE INVESTMENTS billion spent on each of the domestic spending priorities will create substantially more jobs within the U.S. economy than would the same $1 billion spent on the military. We show that investments in clean energy, health care and education create a much larger number of jobs across all pay ranges, including mid-range jobs (paying between $32,000 and $64,000} and high-paying jobs (paying over $64,000}. Channeling funds into clean energy, health care and education in an effective way will therefore create significantly greater opportunities for decent employment throughout the U.S. economy than spending the same amount of funds with the military." www.globallssues.org US Military Expenditure since 2001 1000 900 soo 100 600 . I ' 1 Figure 1: Job Creatton in the U.S. Through $1 Billion in Spending 1.1,100 T i :ll,IOO l ~ 0 i'l,IOO ~ JI,IOO ~,100 Education HeallhCare Clean Energy Personal ConS\Jmplion Military http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/published study/spending priorities PERI.pdf WHAT CAN WE DO WITH THIS INFORMATION? Bring these facts to the attention of the public through speaking at public comment periods at city council and other public governance meetings; write letters to the editor; organize a panel discussion or debate in your community. e. 500 When you make an office visit to your member of Congress, present this fact sheet and say that you expect your representative to work to change budget priorities. ~ 5 0 0 400 300 200 100 0 Source; Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, May 2010 "The point that has to be made is that they're linked, that we have the money to put people back to work to start correcting the infrastructure, to start providing health care for all citizens, for doing the things that government is supposed to do. And the money is there; we have to stop wasting it Chalmers Johnson, author of "Blowback" and other books, quoted in interview on "The Real News" F1gures include baGe defense budget, nuclear weapons activities from the Oep