COALITION FOR PEACE ACTION RELEASES RESULTS OF “PENNY POLL” ON FEDERAL BUDGET PRIORITIES
Photos by Anna Savoia.
The Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) today announced the results of its “Penny Poll” conducted in front of the Palmer Square Post Office from 12:00-1:30 PM on April 16, the day after the filing deadline for income taxes, as well as at the CFPA table at Communiversity on April 27. Below are the results of area residents would like to see their federal tax dollars spent.
As people came to the post office, or to the CFPA table at Communiversity, they were invited to express their opinion on how they would like their federal tax dollar to be spent.
Each of the 381 participants were given ten pennies and asked to distribute them between five tubes representing categories of federal spending: education, environment, health care, housing, and military. The results are below.
Category |
Number of Pennies |
Percent |
|
Education |
1,275 |
33 |
|
Health Care |
846 |
22 |
|
Environment |
788 |
21 |
|
Housing |
488 |
13 |
|
Military |
415 |
11 |
Participants were then handed a fact sheet showing that 57% of the “Discretionary Budget” for FY2014 was for military spending. Discretionary spending is what Congress can allocate for what it chooses each year, as distinct from entitlements. Discretionary Budget Funding for Education was just 6%, Health Care 5%; Environment 3%, and Housing 5%.
“This year’s results remain consistent with Penny Poll results from previous years. Taxpayers want more of their hard-earned tax dollars going to education, environment, and health care, and far less to military purposes. We encourage taxpayers to contact their US Representative and Senators to urge them to support more peaceful federal budget priorities,” said the Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director of CFPA.
Click on year to see past "penny poll" results: 2013; 2012; 2011
Annual Penny Poll
12:00-1:00 PM
Tuesday, April 17 (Tax day)
Palmer Square Post Office, Princeton, NJ
As people come to the post office to file their income taxes on the deadline for doing so, we hand them 10 pennies and ask them to divide them between tubes representing five categories of federal spending: education, health, environment, housing, and military. After participants divide up their pennies, we give them a pie chart showing how their federal tax dollar is actually spent, urging them to contact their federal representatives if their priorities are different from the chart. We then let the area media know the outcome of the Penny Poll.
Date: Tuesday, April 17
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Place: Palmer Square Post Office
Princeton, NJ
For more information contact Coalition for Peace Action
(609) 924-5022
COALITION FOR PEACE ACTION TO CONDUCT “PENNY POLL” ON FEDERAL SPENDING PRIORITIES IN PRINCETON ON TAX DAY, APRIL 17; EVENING TOWN HALL IN TRENTON TO FOLLOW
The Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) will conduct its annual “Penny Poll” on federal spending priorities on this year’s deadline for filing federal tax returns, Tuesday, April 17, from 12 noon until 1:00 PM in front of the Palmer Square Post Office in downtown Princeton.
People approaching the post office, many to mail their tax returns by the deadline, will be handed 10 pennies and invited to distribute them among five tubes proportionate to how they would like to see their federal tax dollars spent. The five choices will include: Military, Environment, Education, Housing, and Health Care.
After distributing their pennies, participants will be handed a fact sheet describing how their federal tax dollar is actually spent. If their choices are dramatically different from those on the fact sheet, they will be urged to write a letter to their elected representatives urging change.
Interested people are invited to participate in the Penny Poll and/or to help conduct it by coming to the Palmer Square Post Office in Princeton between 12 and 1. For further information, visit CFPA’s web site at www.peacecoalition.org or call the CFPA office at (609) 924-5022.
CFPA Executive Director, the Rev. Robert Moore, will speak on Reprioritizing Federal Budget Priorities Toward Meeting Urgent Needs at Home at a Tax Day Town Hall hosted by the New Jersey Chapter of the Zeitgeist movement from 5:30-7:30 PM in the Main Meeting Room of the Trenton Public Library, 120 Academy Street in Trenton. The Town Hall is free and open to the public.
“For many years, the Penny Poll has had hundreds of participants throughout the region with strikingly similar results: the vast majority of respondents wanted the majority of their federal tax dollar spent on education and health care. Next came environment and housing. By a large margin, the least popular category of spending was for the military.
Yet in the FY 2011 Federal Budget, 57% of the Discretionary Budget (which Congress can allocate how it wants, and thus excludes trust funds like Social Security) was for Military Spending, while only 6% was for Education, 5% for Housing, and 3% for Environment[1].
The only way these distorted budget priorities will change is if we, average citizens, put enough pressure on our elected officials to insist that it change,” said the Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director of CFPA.
[1] Statistics from the National Priorities Project
