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Queen Benson’s Hands in Tax Payer Pockets Again


With the death of Tom Benson, his wife Gayle became the richest person living in the state of Louisiana and the owner of the New Orleans Saints, among other properties. Like her husband before her, she has continued the family tradition of extorting millions of dollars from the city and the state.

Knowing the local workers’ love of the football team, she has coerced the state to pay her $450 million to keep the team in New Orleans for another 15 years (and an ‘option’ for 15 more, meaning another round of extortion from whichever Benson is running things by then). As previously reported in the Workers Voice, this is a common tactic of privately owned teams and something Tom Benson did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as well, demanding a ransom of $23.5 million a year from the people in order to keep the beloved team from leaving town.

According to Gov. John Bel Edwards, Gayle’s ransom money will come from the state, from the Louisiana State and Exposition District (which is a state entity that runs the Superdome), and a portion from the Saints organization. It will be used to renovate the Dome. Already, the Benson family does not pay rent for their use of the state-owned building, claiming it to be a “small market” for sports in spite of the fact that the team sells out on season tickets almost every year for the 70,000+ seat stadium.

This money comes out of the pockets of the workers, and they will see none of it coming back to them. Improvements to the Superdome will mostly be enjoyed by those rich enough to afford tickets to see the team or the huge concerts that play there, not by the average worker, and most of the money will simply line the pockets of the Benson family. Those who work at the Superdome will continue to be paid $8 an hour while the owners of the team will walk away with millions per game.

The Green Bay Packers, on the other hand, are owned by the city of Green Bay. Given that the workers of New Orleans have supported the team for 50 years, and given that their work has made every bit of profit the Benson family has taken from the city, the people of New Orleans should own the New Orleans Saints. No more handouts to the super-rich! No more privately-owned teams! Make the Saints a true home town team!

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60 Biggest Companies Paid No Taxes on $79 Billion in Profits

The companies included IBM, Netflix, General Motors, Chevron, and more. Despite reporting profits of $11.2 billion without paying a cent in taxes, Amazon actually applied for a refund of nearly $129 million.

Companies that claimed tax cuts would create jobs have laid off thousands.

A partial list of these mega greedy companies include AT&T, Capital One, Cox Enterprises, Ford, General Dynamics, Intel, Kimberly-Clark, Lockheed Martin, Macys, Northrop Grumman, T-Mobile, Verizon, Viacom, Walmart, Walt Disney, Union Pacific, CSX, Toys R Us, Sears/Kmart, and JC Penney.

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City Spends Millions on Mardi Gras, But Tourism Taxes Don’t Go to the City

By LaVonna Varnado-Brown

In a March 8, 2019 press release, two days after Fat Tuesday, Mayor Cantell expressed deep gratitude to all the departments whose efforts contributed to a successful Carnival 2019. The city spent millions to mobilize the “New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans Fire Department, New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, Department of Health, Department of Public Works, Department of Sanitation, Department of Property Management, Parking Enforcement, Parks and Parkways, Orleans Parish Communication District, and the New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.”

Aside from whatever enjoyment the people get out off Mardi Gras, its purpose is to bring in millions in profit for the tourist industry, which pays for none of these services. The press release magnifies the fact that the city is subsidizing multiple private industries without concern for the needs of the working class residents of New Orleans. I recognize that the mobilization of these resources is needed to ensure safety for the influx of tourists and New Orleans residents. But the contradiction is that many of these resources are denied to the residents who live and work here every day. In the case of hospitality workers and service industry employees, our work generates the bulk of the revenue that they, in private board rooms, allocate as they see fit—usually away from black, brown, low income spaces.

$180 million in hotel taxes go to private non-elected commissions to boost the profits of private companies.  It does not go into the budget.   Meanwhile we have no money for infrastructure and early childhood education. This $180 million dollars worth of stolen taxes could be allocated for childcare for service industry workers during Mardi Gras while schools are closed.  This money could be used to provide healthcare, maternity leave, and pensions to service industry and hospitality workers.  This is not money that we need to letter write and ask for politely. This money belongs to the working class and has been stolen. We Demand that it be returned and used to elevate the humanity of workers locally. Doing so can only further illuminate and strengthen the city.  The time is now to educate ourselves on the things we want to see changed. Agitate others to view the contradictions that exist. Then organize for revolution. The time for change is now and can begin with you, now.

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We Demand Working Class New Orleanians Get Free Tickets and Parking for Saints Games

WE PAID FOR THEM ALREADY!

The Bensons Have Gotten Hundreds of MILLIONS of our tax dollars
We pay the taxes! We won’t be locked out!

Tickets for Saints/Steelers game $400-$2,000

The Benson family, the richest in all of Louisiana (oil companies take their profits out of state) has received hundreds of millions of dollars in state subsidies out of public funds paid for by working class New Orleanians. In 2018 alone, $52 million went to the Superdome from hotel taxes instead of going to the budget of the city.

The Bensons collected $94 million from 2009 to 2012. The state used $85 million in tax money to upgrade the Superdome which the Bensons used rent and tax free. The state guaranteed the Bensons $12.5 million yearly in revenue as a result. Champions Square, owned by the city, brought the Bensons more millions, even though they are currently behind on funds to the city for the property.

Saints’ games alone bring in $63 million in revenue and another $14 million for parking. Incredibly the state even gave them $2.8 million in a tax refund from taxes the state collects from out of town players’ salaries.

We’re happy for the few folks whose lay-away was paid off by Gayle Benson at the Walmart on Tchoupitoulas. Tons of media were there to record this act of holiday “generosity.” But its purpose was anything but wonderful. This was just a stunt to make Benson look good while she rips off the people of New Orleans.

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Activists Expose Convention Center for Stealing Tax Dollars

On Wednesday, August 24th, a delegation of militant activists went to a meeting of the Exhibition Hall Authority (the bureaucrats and wealthy capitalists running the Convention Center) to publicly criticize the Ernst E. Morial Convention Center for trying to steal $329.5 million in tax dollars from the city budget. The Convention Center wants this money to build a hotel for its own profit, even though $329.5 million is more than enough to provide health insurance to every uninsured worker in New Orleans and house every homeless person in the city.

Alec Arceneaux and James Ponder of the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Committee attacked the hotel project for being a “grand larseny.” In their joint statement, they said: “We demand an end to this robbery. Return the people’s stolen tax dollars back to the general budget, and use it to SERVE THE PEOPLE.”

Gavrielle Gemma of the People’s Assembly: “We’re not here to appeal to your morals, because we know you have none,” she said. “We’re only here to warn you that there will be an eruption in this city.”

Dylan Borne of the New Orleans Workers Group: “The NOPD is terrorizing and locking up black and brown youth every day. Yet the biggest gangsters and criminals in the city still aren’t behind bars, they’re sitting right here in front of me.”

Belden “Noonie Man” Batiste, Congressional candidate, exclaimed that the whole board should be arrested. He also shamed Robert “Tiger” Hammond, so-called union leader of the AFL-CIO, for selling out to the board instead of representing the working class.

Kim Ford called the Exhibition Hall Authority the worst board she’s ever seen and criticized its members for living like Kings while the workers who showed up to the meeting spend “our last dollar trying to park outside.”

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Tax Bill is an Attack on Workers – We Must Fight Back

By Gregory William

The Republican tax overhaul is the most sweeping change in the U.S. tax system in over 30 years. The bill is complex, but overall it is designed to make the rich richer. For example, the corporate tax rate drops from 35% to 21%. The Trump family and other billionaires will also reap huge savings because of changes to the estate tax; individuals can shelter up to $11.2 million in assets from estate taxes, and couples can shelter up to $22.4 million.

Perhaps more importantly, the tax cuts will increase federal debt, giving Republicans an excuse to cut healthcare, housing programs, programs for children, the elderly, and disabled including Social Security and Medicare. In short, their agenda is to attack the poor and working class, outright stealing from ordinary, struggling people. These programs are run using our tax money. They are not “entitlements,” except in the sense that, yes, we are entitled to what is already ours. We know that this will come down especially hard on people of color, LGBT folk, immigrants, the elderly, and women.

It is likely that we are entering a period of increased hardship and austerity. However, we should be clear that these policies are not coming out of nowhere. This is a continuation of a 40+-year trend. We are under the shadow of the great reversal. Even in supposedly progressive countries like France and Canada, the capitalist class has systematically attacked the social programs that workers fought for tooth and nail. Worldwide, wealth and resources are more and more being redistributed to the top.

A new U.N. report has confirmed what we already knew: Extreme poverty is prevalent in the U.S. and rising. Philip Alston, the report’s author, has said that in the U.S “if you’re born poor, guess where you’re going to end up – poor.”

This situation did not suddenly come about when Trump was elected. Inequality has risen through Republican and Democratic presidencies, and regardless of which party controlled Congress. The people have long given the Democratic Party the benefit of the doubt. But time and again, they have shown that their allegiance is to the billionaire class. It was Obama who bailed out Wall St., leaving the people behind in the so-called economic recovery following the financial crash. And the Democrats overwhelmingly voted in favor of the recent $700 billion military budget (more money for war profiteers means less money for workers).

We cannot afford to keep putting our faith in the Democrats. In this period of increasing inequality and oppression, we must focus on building up our own organizations and movements, truly independent of the Democratic Party. Most of all, it is necessary that we build a revolutionary movement to overthrow capitalism itself. We must fight for socialism.