BANGOR, Maine — After debating the merits of the city taking over an abandoned property and approving ordinance changes, Bangor’s City Council debated the merits of an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The majority of time at Monday’s regular council meeting was taken up by councilor debate and public comment over Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick’s proposed resolution against the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission.
The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, voted that the First Amendment kept the U.S. government from restricting political spending by corporations and unions.
Gratwick’s resolution, which has no legislative or authoritative impact, was approved 5-3 by the council on Monday night. It reads as follows: “Support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to provide that corporations are not entitled to the rights of natural persons with regard to the expenditure of money to influence elections.”
Councilors Gratwick, Ben Sprague, Charlie Longo, Joe Baldacci and Sue Hawes voted in favor of the resolution.
“That 2010 decision reversed a century of U.S. political understanding of the role of corporations,” said Baldacci, who added that allowing that decision to stand was akin to allowing the 1857 Supreme Court Dred Scott case decision, which held that blacks were not free, the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, and slavery was legal.
Councilors Cary Weston, Nelson Durgin and James Gallant voted against the resolution.
Durgin cited a half dozen Supreme Court decisions holding corporations liable for restitution and damages much like individuals are, and that millions of people currently support and contribute corporate efforts through businesses and unions.
Six people voiced their support of the resolution through public comment at the meeting.
In other business, the council voted unanimously to approve the sale of .23 acres, 10,000-plus square feet, of land behind and adjacent to Geaghan’s Roundhouse Restaurant by the city for $14,040. The deal will allow Geaghan’s to create 25 additional parking spaces.
The council also voted to take possession of the house and property at 55 Grant St., which was condemned and abandoned and upon which property taxes had not been paid for the last five years.
There goes Gratwick putting down corporations while letting his crony union buddies walk free. Citizens United also lets unions spend unlimited money in elections, but Gratwick wouldn’t want to upset John Hanson, would he?
You are correct. A union is an incorporated body and needs to be denied personhood too and I think the wording of the resolution acknowledges that.
Bravo Bangor City Council. You have joined other municipalities across the country that are addressing a critical issue at a critical time in our country. We are either a democracy of the people, for the people, by the people or a plutocracy of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy. Now is the time for us to decide.
So if you work hard and have money your no longer “the people” ? That sure sounds like the American way…
Who are “you “, exactly ?
How can you have the all of rights of people without all of responsibilities of a person and equal treatment under the law ?
Until a corporation is executed by lethal injection in Texas then calling corporations “persons” is a hypocritical conceit that dehumanizes all real human beings.
That is the problem. EQUAL TREATMENT UNDER THE LAW!! As a busniess owner both where LLC’s ( I still owned them ) equality has not place in in it. I pay a much higher tax rate then would be fair. I had to pay tax on fuel my trucks burned going through other states even though I bought no fuel in those states. I had to pay road tax on all my trucks that is at a rate around 1000 percent above what non busniess folks pay. My license plates cost more. Insurance was massively more. I had to pay taxes every quarter. I had to send paperwork to the government every month showing where my drivers went and how many hours in a row they drove/ worked and did not work. I had to meet so many legal requirement I had to have a lawyer on retainer to be sure all the rules, laws and regulations where met as it is impossible for a single human to know half much less all of them.
That said please let me know when the FAIR part comes into play? I was not a corporation but I sure was not treated fair in any way shape or form. FAIR would be one tax and one rate for all. You and those who support these measures have no interest in what is fair if you did you would stop thinking it is ok to take what one person earns and give it to someone who has not earned anything.
A company whether a corporation or other type is still just people. The legal term used to incorporate does not negate that there is still a head person and those below them.
So I ask who are you to take what I made and worked so hard for from me at rate so far above what others pay?
Psst… The United States is not, and never has been, a democracy. We have a republican form of government.
Did you applaud when the Maine Legislature made the Whoopie Pie the official Maine dessert or did you feel they wasted time and taxpayer money?
What an embarrassment.. City business, please. Charlie Longo …are you for real?
The operative words . . .
” Gratwick’s resolution, . . has no legislative or authoritative impact”
Great – now that this is taken care of, can you get back to figuring out why the traffic lights in this city are so poorly timed? Or find some money to fill potholes. Or attract an employer to town? Spending time debating issues that you don’t even get to vote on does as much to advance a cause as shooting the bull with the guys at the lunch counter.
Next time, the council will conduct a limited agenda, debate the fairness that one side of the moon never gets it’s fair share of sunlight, and finally breaking into their own production of Quadraphenia.
(They wanted to do Tommy, but Charlie Longo refused to play the part of a “dumb” kid)