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News Release | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center

New Report Shows Impact of Big Money in the 2012 Election

At a press conference marking the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s contentious Citizens United ruling, NJPIRG today presented Billion Dollar Democracy, a new report by the NJPIRG Law & Policy Center and Dēmos. NJPIRG and the New Jersey for the Overturn of Citizens United (NJOCU) coalition were joined by Liz Lempert, the mayor of Princeton.

 

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Democracy

Outside Spending, Outsized Influence

The 2012 elections were by far the most expensive in history thanks primarily to the tidal wave of outside, special interest money triggered by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The federal Senate and House races in New Jersey, where outside groups spent over $3 million, were no exception.

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Democracy

Elections Confidential

“Elections Confidential” describes how secret donors poured hundreds of millions into the 2012 election through “social welfare” non-profits that are really political vehicles and via shell corporations formed as conduits to hide a funder’s identity.

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News Release | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Tax

Report Exposes How Taxpayers Bear Cost of Corporate Settlements

A report released today spotlights a common practice where corporations that commit wrongdoing and agree to financial settlements with the federal government, go on to claim such settlement payments as tax-deductible business expenses.

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Budget, Tax

Subsidizing Bad Behavior

BP’s recent $4.5 billion legal settlement with the Justice Department for its misdeeds in the Gulf oil spill was historic for being the largest ever criminal settlement. But it was historic for another reason as well—none of it is allowed to be tax deductible. Unfortunately, too many settlements for wrongdoing end up as tax deductions.

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News Release | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Democracy

New Analysis: Tiny Number of Wealthy Contributors Match Millions of Small Donors, Will Continue to Set Agenda In Washington

A new analysis of data through Election Day from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and other sources by New Jersey PIRG Education Fund and Demos shows how big outside spenders drowned out small contributions in the 2012 election cycle.

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News Release | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Democracy

Distorted Democracy

TRENTON – A new analysis of pre-election data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and other sources by New Jersey PIRG and Demos shows that outside spending in the first presidential election since Citizens United is living up to its hype: new waves of “outside spending” have been fueled by dark money and unlimited fundraising from a small number of wealthy donors. Outside spending organizations reported $ 1.11 billion in spending to the FEC through the final reporting deadline in the 2012 cycle.  That’s already a 200% increase over total 2008 outside spending. In New Jersey's Congressional races alone, more than $3 million in outside spending have been reported.

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News Release | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Consumer Protection, Food

New Report: American Lives at Risk from Unsafe Foods

Despite government commitments to address the problem, food recalls are on the rise and our food safety systems are broken, according to a new report by New Jersey PIRG.  Contaminated food makes 48 million Americans sick every year and costs over $77 billion in aggregated economic costs.  Here in New Jersey, in the last 21 months 121 people were made sick from foodborne illnesses linked directly to food recalls; the cost of these illnesses to our state's economy was over $5.1 million.

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News Release | NJPIRG | Democracy

New Jersey Goes on Record Against Citizens United Ruling; Against Big, Secret Money in Our Elections

New Jersey PIRG believes that in our democracy, the size of one’s wallet should not determine the volume of one’s voice. By adopting a resolution in opposition to Citizens United, the New Jersey Assembly has sent a powerful message to Congress that things have to change. Today, our state took an important step towards fixing America’s broken campaign finance system. New Jersey joins eight other states already on record against Citizens United and big, secret money in our elections.

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Media Hit | Tax

Trenton Times: Cut Pork From Federal Farm Bill

The Farm Bill sets our nation’s agricultural and food policy, including a raft of food-related programs such as food assistance and rural development programs. But it also authorizes a set of misguided agricultural subsidy programs that lavish billions of taxpayer dollars on large, profitable agribusinesses.

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Report | NJPIRG Law and Policy Center and Demos | Democracy

Million-Dollar Megaphones

The Top 5 “dark money” spenders on presidential election ads have reported less than 1% of their spending to the FEC, which is all that is required by the agency’s insufficient standards, according to a new report analyzing the latest campaign filings.

N.J. PIRG and Demos report “Million-Dollar Megaphones: Super PACs and Unlimited Outside Spending in the 2012 Elections,” provides a detailed analysis of Federal Election Commission (FEC) data and secondary sources on outside spending and Super PAC fundraising for the 2012 election cycle.

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Budget, Food, Tax

Apples to Twinkies 2012:

At a time when America is facing an obesity epidemic, crushing debt and a weak economy, billions of taxpayer dollars are subsidizing junk food ingredients.

In this report, we find that in 2011, over $1.28 billion in taxpayer subsidies went to junk food ingredients, bringing the total to a staggering $18.2 billion since 1995. To put that figure in perspective, $18.2 billion is enough to buy 2.9 billion Twinkies every year - 21 for every single American taxpayer.

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Financial Reform

Remove Barriers to Low Interest Rates

 

Congress has a rare bipartisan opportunity to put more money in Americans’ pockets, strengthen the housing market and boost the entire economy. By making it easier to refinance into today’s low interest rates, Congress could expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) so it helps up to 13 million Americans nationwide save $35 billion.* In our state alone,  more than 402,000 families would qualify, saving them about $1.67 billion in lower mortgage payments.

 

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Report | NJPIRG Law & Policy Center | Financial Reform, Higher Ed

The Campus Debit Card Trap

Banks and other financial firms are taking advantage of a variety of opportunities to form partnerships with colleges and universities to produce campus student ID cards and to offer student aid disbursements on debit or prepaid cards.

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Report | NJPIRG | Higher Ed

The Cost of College Will Soar if Interest Rates Allowed To Double

More than 7 million students and their families rely on Subsidized Stafford Loans to help pay for college. The loans distributed by the U.S. Department of Education currently hold an interest rate of 3.4 percent. But that rate is set to double if Congress fails to act by July 1, 2012. If that occurs, millions of students will see their interest rates soar to 6.8 percent on the new loans they take in the next year thereby causing a steep rise in their loan burden and effectively increasing the cost of attaining a college degree.

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Blog Post | Budget

Problems With Privatized Law Enforcement's New Frontier | Ed Mierzwinski

One in five Americans lives in a jurisdiction that outsources traffic ticketing this way, according to a newly released report from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, titled "Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead; The Risks of Privatizing Traffic Law Enforcement and How to Protect the Public." And a report released by the Justice Department suggests this trend may accelerate under the twin pressures of budget pressure and intense lobbying.

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Tools & Resources

  • Protect N.J. From Toxic Accidents
    This accident in Paulsboro was a sobering reminder of the threat of toxic accidents. Tell the EPA: Protect our communities from toxic threats.
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  • STOP TAX DODGERS
    Corporate tax avoidance cost taxpayers $100 billion last year. We're working to close the loopholes that allow companies to avoid paying the taxes they owe.
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  • Reclaim Democracy
    The Supreme Court's Citizens United decision ushered in an era of unprecedented spending by big money in our elections, but we're working to return our democracy back to the principle of "one person, one vote."
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  • How Many Tax Dollars In A Twinkie?
    Every year, more than a billion taxpayer dollars subsidize high-fructose corn syrup and other key ingredients in junk food at a time when 1 in 3 kids is overweight or obese.
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Priority Action

The vinyl chloride spill in Paulsboro was a sobering reminder of the threat of toxic spills. Tell the EPA: Keep our communities safe from toxic accidents.

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