The Democrats’ secret corporate tax is a crime

Republican Congressman Mike Rulli of Ohio knows firsthand what it takes to run a business. He is the operations manager of the family-owned grocery store chain in Ohio's Mahoning Valley.

He also knows that the hidden tax Democrats impose on businesses in the cities they govern is a crime. The ability to do business in a hostile environment is taking an impossible toll on entrepreneurs, whether they are small family-run businesses, franchises or even large corporations. They are moving away from America's once great cities.

“I come from a family of small business owners and have seen firsthand what it means to run such a business. I can't imagine what it must be like to have your livelihood and hard work destroyed because the government can't protect you from crime. No business should have to close because its representatives can't ensure safety,” Rulli said.

In inner cities, businesses large and small are closing at an unprecedented rate, and cities are paying an unspecified tax imposed on them by the left wing of the Democratic Party's lenient policies on law enforcement.

Consider the following list of businesses that have closed in once-vibrant business districts of some of America's largest cities. In San Francisco alone – according to a June 22, 2023 article by Danielle Chao in Reform California – Saks Off Fifth, Old Navy, Anthropologie, Amazon Go, Whole Foods, Office Depot, Nordstrom and HandM have closed in downtown San Francisco. Add to that the abandonment of the Hilton San Francisco, one of the city's largest hotels.

In the same article, Carl DeMaio, chairman of Reform California, is quoted as saying, “The overwhelming evidence proves that businesses and residents are fleeing San Francisco because of the crime wave and the rising homeless population. And you can blame liberal politicians in San Francisco for passing completely flawed laws that enable crime and encourage homelessness.”

In Chicago, companies like Caterpillar, Boeing, Tyson Foods and Citadel have fled the Windy City. Why? According to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, it's crime.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he said, “If people aren't safe here, they won't live here. Several of my colleagues have been robbed at gunpoint. One of my colleagues was stabbed on his way to work. Countless burglaries. I mean, it's a really difficult environment to attract talent to the city.” He also mentioned that car thieves had attacked his security guards but had been unable to steal his car.

The cost of crime is a hidden tax on businesses and residents. It increases costs when goods are stolen and increased security measures are purchased. At the same time, sales fall because customers are afraid to shop in areas with high crime rates. And finally, insurance costs rise. This triple threat ruins the business environment. Companies go out of business because they can neither raise their prices enough to cover their costs nor lower their prices enough to attract buyers. Add to that competition from the Internet and you have a recipe for bankruptcy.

The impact of crime on businesses is not the only cost. A study by Kathryn E. McCollister, assistant professor of health economics, and Michael T. French, professor of health economics, both of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Hai Fang, assistant professor, Department of Health Systems, Management, and Policy, Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado, published online in 2010 and reprinted by the National Library of Medicine, calculated the costs of crime.

They wrote: “Crime imposes significant costs on society at the individual, community, and national levels. In the United States, more than 23 million crimes were committed in 2007, resulting in approximately $15 billion in economic losses to victims and $179 billion in government spending on police protection, justice and legal response, and corrections (US Department of Justice, 2004a, US Department of Justice, 2007a, US Department of Justice, 2008).”

The Rand Corporation has a calculator for the cost of crime, which you can find here.

If our political leadership is not prepared to stop this crime wave, our cities will become deserts. The Democrats have proven that they cannot and will not do that.

On the contrary, George Soros-funded Democratic Party district attorneys such as Alvin Bragg, Chesa Boudin, Larry Krasner, and George Gascon are left-wing ideologues determined to reshape society according to the doctrines of Antonio Gramsci, Angela Davis, Derrick Bell, the Frankfurt School, prison and death penalty abolitionists, and others.