Child-care workers blast Griffin for 'stalled' funds
SEIU Healthcare Ill. charges billionaire gave $40M to congressional Republicans and to defeat Fair Tax Amendment
Child-care worker Joslyn Ewing-Brown leads an SEIU Healthcare Illinois demonstration outside the offices of Citadel Investments Tuesday in Chicago’s Loop. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Union child-care workers called out billionaire Kenneth Griffin on Tuesday for giving $40 million to “stall” adequate funding for day-care providers.
“We are in need of critical funding for child care, but billionaire Ken Griffin has attempted to block it on the federal and state level,” said Joslyn Ewing-Brown, a 15-year child-care worker in Chicago.
The Service Employees International Union’s Healthcare Illinois faction led a demonstration outside the offices of Griffin’s Citadel Investments in Chicago’s Loop on Tuesday, culminating in a car caravan honking horns as they circled the block. Maggie Laslo, secretary-treasurer of the union representing 90,000 workers, charged that Griffin had contributed $20 million since 2017 to back President Trump and congressional Republicans and another $20 million just this month to defeat the Fair Tax Amendment attempting to enact a graduated income tax in Illinois.
“It’s a shame that we have to be here to call out the hurtful, racist greed of Ken Griffin and others like him in this state,” Laslo said. “It’s not enough for them to be billionaires at the expense of working families, they have to use their millions and billions of dollars to try to take even more.”
Laslo also cited Griffin’s support for former Gov. Bruce Rauner, “who tried to destroy the child-care program here in Illinois,” sewing chaos in the Child Care Assistance Program. She charged that Griffin is “using his money to fund candidates for Congress who want to cut child care and give more tax breaks to the rich. And at the same time he’s using his money to try to protect millionaires in Illinois by trying to defeat the fair tax.”
Ewing-Brown specifically cited the Child Care Is Essential Act, passed this summer by U.S. House Democrats only to be “stalled” by Senate Republicans led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. She blamed Griffin in that “not only has he blocked relief for child-care workers and providers with his contributions to the national stage, (but) locally Ken Griffin donated $20 million to block the Fair Tax Amendment, which would guarantee the kind of revenue Illinois needs to fund child-care providers and essential workers.”
The Fair Tax Amendment itself, on top of Illinois ballots in the Nov. 3 general election, actually only alters the state constitution to allow a progressive income tax rather than the flat tax mandated since 1970. Tax brackets set by the General Assembly last year would cut taxes or leave them level for 97 percent of taxpayers making up to $250,000 a year, while those making more would pay a higher rate maxing out at just under 8 percent for those making more than $1 million. It’s projected to raise more than $3 billion annually, better enabling the state to fund critical social services including early childhood development — a key initiative of Gov. Pritzker — along with public education and pensions.
“We stand with the child-care workers,” said Janette Wilson, of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. “As we look at this fair tax, we now know that millionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share, and we know that the rich are allowing those with the least to pay the most in taxes.
“The fair tax in Illinois will allow us to level the playing field where everyone pays their fair share,” she added, “so that those on the bottom will be able to take care of their children, take care of their families — whether it’s a pandemic or a normal situation. We stand with those who support the fair tax.”
“Child-care workers are overworked and underpaid. Child care is unaffordable,” said Tahiti Hamer, a teacher at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. “Now it’s time to fix our broken system. The fair tax will help us generate the revenue the state needs.”
“Child care is essential,” Laslo said, “and it needs to be invested in.” She called for Illinois voters to “tax the rich and fund the services our communities need.”