AGENDA #3a(3)

A Resolution Calling for New Federal Priorities

WHEREAS federal administration priorities and policies have led to de facto unfunded mandates on local governments, such as:

• Demands for increased testing without sufficient funding for public education, and
• Failed energy policies that increase dependence on costly non-renewable fuels, and
• Health care policy that favors pharmaceutical and insurance industries at the expense of employers and citizens, and
• Environmental policies that worsen air pollution and drive up health care costs, and
• Lax enforcement of job safety regulations resulting in productivity losses and increasing health costs, and
• Mismanagement of homeland security that places increased burdens on local governments for disaster planning and relief, and
• Failure to enforce worker rights laws and establish a meaningful minimum wage, resulting in increased poverty and demand for increased access to local health and human services, and
• Gutting of federal programs for low-income families that has created increased local burdens for housing and other services, and
• The promotion and subsidy of large-scale agribusiness corporations which contribute to the crippling of local farm economies which have traditionally been the foundation of healthy rural life, the source for local food, and are minimally oil-dependent, and

WHEREAS the war in Iraq is siphoning billions of dollars from the US economy and straining the fiscal health of our federal, state and local governments, and

WHEREAS no-bid contracts to major corporations for reconstruction in the southeast United States and Iraq undermine the trust of citizens in the integrity of government, and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED  by the Mayor and (Town Council) (Board of Alderman) that (Council) (Board) hereby petitions the Bush Administration and Congress to end the war in Iraq, re-establish a progressive tax code, curtail favoritism toward corporate interests, develop responsible policies focused on renewable energy, and commit to priorities that reflect the common good.

Resolved this day of ________________ (date) and forwarded to:

George W. Bush, President, United States of America

_______________________ US Senate

_______________________ US Senate

_______________________ US Congress

[Appropriate signatures]