HOSPITALITY WORKERS ORGANIZE TO DEMAND FULL SERVICE MEDICAL CLINIC
$140 MILLION IN TAX MONEY IS BEING GIVEN TO THE BIGGEST TOURISM CORPORATIONS A YEAR, NOT OUR CITY BUDGET, NOT LOCAL BUSINESS AND NOTHING FOR THE WORKERS!
STATE LEGISLATURE, MAYOR AND COUNCIL DID THIS WITHOUT VOTERS’ FULL CONSENT.
By Marie Torres, Restaurant Server, Organizer Hospitality Workers Committee
In New Orleans the rich ruling class calls all the shots and chooses profit over people while workers are consistently denied basic rights. While the wealthy feast, the very workers who serve them their meals starve. We are expected to work doubles, clopenings, through hurricanes, with a smile on our face to make the rich man’s pocket fatter in hopes that we’ll be able to make rent this month, or get our babies fed. There are over 88,000 of us and without our labor the city’s tourism economy would crumble in the blink of their eye, yet the wealthy business owners and corporations think of us as disposable.
Ever wonder just how much money you have generated from all those plates you fixed, all those smiles you served, all those tourists asking you “where’s Bourbon Street?” Where does it all go? $7.5 Billion dollars are generated every single year by the tourism industry. Ever wonder why you literally cannot afford to get sick?
You know the feeling, fellow worker. As soon as you or your children start coughing, understand the struggle: buying some Emergen-C and NyQuil and calling it healthcare, waiting until the fever is way too high before you make the trek to the Urgent Care, worried the entire time about the cost because you don’t have insurance. If you do have insurance, you have to worry about what isn’t covered: those cavities you’ve tried ignoring, how you squint to see words on a page, maybe you’ve got a weak knee giving you trouble or some back pain you’d love to get checked out. You hear about more serious illness and just hope it doesn’t happen to you, you might already have some medical debt. Because your job doesn’t offer insurance, the city doesn’t help provide affordable insurance, and despite how hard you work, all you can afford just doesn’t cover it. Why? Isn’t the money there? The answer is: of course.
In 2015 alone, hotel taxes were $165 Million.
Local tax on all food and beverages (without voter approval) $11.2 Million.
All these taxes were turned over to private corporations that are called commissions that have been put into the city charter along with taxes dedicated to go directly to them.
Yes, over $140 Million every year goes to the Convention and Visitors Bureau ($17 Million), the LA Stadium and Exposition District ($57 Million), the Exhibition Hall Authority ($58 Million), and the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation ($12 Million).
This is money that does not go into the general budget, does not go towards bettering our communities, healthcare, or education. With all this money floating around, shouldn’t the workers at least have access to healthcare?
Money goes to white businesses, not Black local businesses.
Despite income inequality between Black and white residents growing wider, a recent report called the Disparity Study stated that only 2% of revenue generated by business in New Orleans goes to Black Businesses
The people in charge of these commissions, work hand-in-hand with the city council and the mayor to do this dirty work. For example, the Board members of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation are from the biggest hotel and casino chains, real estate developers, and from other commissions such as the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the LA Restaurant Associations, as well as city council members and future mayor Latoya Cantrell, Stacy Head, Nadine Ramsey and Jason Williams.
Big business and government are working closely together to profit while the workers suffer. In 2013, the city was denied by the state legislature a proposal to increase hotel tax by 1.75% for the general budget. One year later, in 2014, the state legislature passed an increased hotel tax (by you guessed it: 1.75%!) dedicated to the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Tourism Marketing Corporation. Police of the French Quarter also got a piece: 0.25%. The Convention and Visitors Bureau alone is sitting on a $300 million surplus – all from tax money that should be used for recreation, jobs and fixing streets.
(*All data can be found from the Bureau of Governmental Research*)
THE SCANDAL IS DEEPER. WORKERS VOICE IS INVESTIGATING ALL TAX EXEMPTIONS AND ABATEMENTS THE RICH GET.