Resolution Calling for Hearings on Real City Budgets Needed and the Taxes our Cities Send to the Federal Military Budget

Adopted at the 85th Annual Meeting in 2017



  • WHEREAS, the United States Conference of Mayors has for numerous years passed resolutions calling for cutting the military budget to spend the savings on human needs; and

    WHEREAS, the severity of the ongoing economic crisis has created budget shortfalls at all levels of government and requires us to re-examine our national spending priorities; and

    WHEREAS, the military portion of our discretionary Federal budget has been for many years and continues to be greater than fifty percent; and

    WHEREAS, reductions in spending on the military budget should be done in a measured way that does not destabilize our communities nor reduces in any way funds for Veterans; and

    WHEREAS, funds should be allocated to create a just transition to a civilian economy; and

    WHEREAS, city governments throughout the nation are hard pressed to maintain city services and meet their responsibilities to their constituents; and

    WHEREAS, the US Conference of Mayors wishes to draw our residents into the conversation so that they too can express their wishes,
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    NOW,THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors calls on the Mayors of each of our cities to promptly hold public hearings that examine what each of city's Departments needs to carry out the goals of the Department and the work it is assigned and what they could accomplish if funds were available that now go to the military; and
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    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that each city is urged to include in its public hearings a report on how much of its resident's federal taxes go toward paying the military budget; and
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    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that each city government is urged to pass a resolution calling on our federal legislators and the US government to move significant funds away from the military budget to human needs; and
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    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that each city is urged to send a copy of the resolution passed to its federal legislators with a request that they respond with their plans to reduce the military budget in favor of the human needs budget.
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