Chapter leaders to urge Congress to tax billionaires, protect democracy in federal legislative package 

What: Demonstration with local speakers

When: Thursday, July 14 at 9 a.m.

Where: The Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall

Charlottesville, Va. — As Congressional leaders debate what could be the last big legislative accomplishment of the 117th Congress before the midterm elections, the Charlottesville Chapter of Virginia Organizing will hold a demonstration at the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall on Thursday morning at 9 a.m. to urge them to finish the job. 

Federal lawmakers are considering a long-awaited reconciliation package that would lower health care and prescription drug costs while at the same time increasing taxes on the super wealthy and corporations for the first time in decades. Billionaires have increased their wealth by about 70% in the last two years of the pandemic while paying almost nothing in additional taxes thanks to a rigged tax system that allows them to pay lower tax rates than teachers, firefighters, and nurses. 

Speakers at tomorrow’s event will release a new report from Americans for Tax Fairness showing how the nation’s ultra-rich, including the nine billionaires in Virginia, are using their wealth to influence elections, buy candidates, and pass policies that enable them to keep getting richer by rigging democracy in their favor.

“It is very unpatriotic,” Susan Perry, a longtime leader in the Charlottesville Chapter of Virginia Organizing said, “for billionaire companies that have benefited from the opportunities of our country to not take part in taxes that the everyday citizen is penalized for not paying.” 

Dell Erwin, an Albermarle County resident and Virginia Organizing leader, added, “It is important for millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share.” 

To interview a spokesperson about this event, contact Peter Finn at 804-405-7464 or peter@virginia-organizing.org.