By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

Our country is in trouble, with 25 million people out of work or stuck with part-time jobs when they need full-time pay to support their families or - with four unemployed workers for every opening - too discouraged to look for work. And the banks keep taking the homes and savings of working families.

Hopelessness is spreading, and right-wing Republicans who aim to gut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and all our labor and environmental protections are trying to take advantage of the misery with their ridiculous claim that shredding the social safety net will fix the economy and create jobs.

We desperately need a big jobs program, mortgage assistance and federal aid to cities and states, which are wiping out jobs as they slash public services. Yet to fund these urgent needs, we have an unfair tax system that favors big business and the rich over ordinary working Americans and deprives the government of vital revenue.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett put his finger on an outrageous fact of American life when he pointed out that he pays only 17 percent of his income in taxes, while his secretary and other office workers pay twice as much - from 33 to 41 percent. He says we should immediately increase tax rates on all incomes over $1 million - including investment dividends and capital gains.

American corporations skip out on billions of dollars in taxes by stashing profits in low-tax havens overseas. According to CBS "60 Minutes" reporter Lesley Stahl, 30,000 companies list their headquarters in the small town of Zug in Switzerland, which has only 26,000 people. The U.S. firms, often with only a mailbox in Zug, pay corporate taxes of 16 percent there instead of the 35 percent they would pay at home. This is "perfectly legal" under current U.S. tax laws, Stahl said, but it "doesn't smell right."

Here in New York, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo agreed on tilting the tax system even more toward the rich by letting the millionaire's tax expire at year's end - eliminating a $5 billion annual stream of revenue while they cut education and health care and lay off workers.

Our unjust tax system is widening the gap between rich and poor. Unless we fix it, we will descend into economic apartheid.

A very special governor

I want to remind our members about a very special man. Governor Hugh Carey, who died Aug. 7 at the age of 92, had immense respect and concern for working people. Gov. Carey took the bold step of appointing me as the first black woman to head the state Industrial Commission in 1981, and he supported union workers by working with me to remake the agency into the Labor Department.

I hope public employees never forget that before Hugh Carey we had no safety protections under state law. I am proud that one of my first challenges as Labor Commissioner was to implement the Public Employee Safety and Health Act.

In the mid-1970s, Carey helped resolve New York City's worst fiscal crisis without the scapegoating of labor that we have seen recently. Instead, he brought together political officials, financiers and labor leaders as respected equals who sacrificed together to prevent financial collapse.