City council eyes war policy
Facebook
The Republican
Fred Contrada
05/30/2010
NORTHAMPTON - The city is making another venture into federal and foreign policy as it prepares to sound out residents on a resolution to bring home the local tax money that is funding America's wars abroad.
The council has taken stands in the past on non-local issues such as fair trade and the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. At its May 6 meeting, six councilor and Mayor Mary Clare Higgins offered a "Bring home the war dollars" resolution that calls for the city to sponsor public discussion about the cost of the military actions wars in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan on the local economy. According to the resolution, Northampton residents are paying $111.7 million in taxes to fund those efforts.
The resolution calls upon Northampton's congressional representatives to oppose all legislation in the U.S. House and Senate to fund the wars, take strong action to terminate funding of these military operations and support all resolutions against increasing the number of troops in those regions. The council referred the matter to several committees, which are sponsoring a public forum on June 23 at 7 p.m. at the John F. Kennedy Middle School.
City Councilor Pamela C. Schwartz, one of the co-sponsors, said the key to the resolution is starting a dialogue about the issues.
"Basically, I think it's a really important conversation to have to make connections between our spending priorities and their impact here at home," she said. "It's good to carve out time to talk about this and understand the implications of federal tax policy decisions."
The impetus for the resolution came from a group called the Alliance for Peace and Justice, which collected signatures to bring the resolution before the council. Dr. Martha A. Nathan, one of the group's members, said the alliance formed in response to President Barrack Obama's decision to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan....
