Annual St.Louis Area JwJ

SCROOGE OF THE YEAR

NOMINEES: 

Pinnacle  Entertainment elected "Scrooge of the Year" with 2544 votes
Sen Elect Roy Blunt slides into 4th with 370 votes
Rex Sinquefeld winds up in 2nd with 1910 votes
Peabody Coal  finishes in 5th place with 279 votes
St. Louis Tea Party Leadership surprises the crowd with a spectacular 3rd place finish 505 votes
And Write-in Candidate Clive Coleman (Superintendent for Riverview Gardens school district) eeks out 143 votes!  Not bad for a write-in!!

Pinnacle Entertainment , owner and operator of Lumiere Casino, who like Scrooge, wants to wish their own personal Marley (the closed President Casino) away. Yet their STINGY treatment of the unemployed President workers haunts them still…especially as they continue to make similar “ghosts” with their refusal to bargain in “good faith” with Lumiere employees. Nominated by Unite HERE

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Sen Elect Roy Blunt (R) , MO Senator-Elect who's work was crucial to passage of the Bush Bank Bailout, which gave Wall Street billions in taxpayer dollars as a reward for damaging the economy. However when state and local governments needed emergency aid to preserve essential services and the jobs of people who paid them. Blunt called the legislation a “bailout,” because it didn’t help his corporate paymasters.Nominated by CWA 6355

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Rex Sinquefield , a St. Louis Mllioniare who single-handedly financing proposals that would undermine the common good, including: Proposition A that will make it harder for working families in St. Louis and Kansas City to thrive and will stifle the economy of the urban areas of the state; and The “Mega Sales Tax” proposal which, if passed, will make accessing critical services (like child care, health care, legal assistance) that help families and communities lead healthy, participatory lives cost prohibitive; and which, if passed, will undermine Missouri’s already struggling economy, diminish state services that are central to economic prosperity and provide an economic boon to border states like Illinois and Kansas who will reap the benefits of Missouri’s misfortune.Nominated by the Missouri Budget Project

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Peabody Coal Peabody Coal is holding the City of St. Louis hostage. This year, Peabody Coal received $71 million in state and federal tax credits just for threatening to leave downtown.This deal will be detrimental to the city. The tax abatement that city officials approved for Peabody will cost the St. Louis Public Schools $1.96 million over the next decade, according to a cost-benefit analysis attached to the measure. Investment in renewable energy creates three times as many jobs as investment in fossil fuels. Peabody Coal boasts a long record of union-busting and worker intimidation tactics; they have systematically closed union mines and rerouted production to non-union mines over the last 20 years. 

Coal use now accounts for roughly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Coal use releases mercury, pollutes rivers, and leads to acid rain.Coal-fired pollution causes 23,600 premature deaths, 21,850 hospital admissions, 554,000 asthma attacks, and 38,200 heart attacks every year. In 2010, St. Louis was named the #2 Asthma Capital by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. We have to ask ourselves: would it be so bad if they had to go? Nominated by Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment

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St. Louis Tea Party Leadership. During a time of great economic hardship, the local tea party leaders promoted their own careers by misdirecting people’s anger to stand in the way of meaningful changes designed to protect the American Middle Class. They attempted to block a stimulus bill that saved millions of jobs, attempted to block healthcare reform, tried to defund public transportation in St. Louis, and even argued against Wall Street reforms. They also engaged in shameful, dishonest smear campaigns against unions, government employees, and even schoolteachers whenever it suited their agenda. Nominated by Student Labor Action Project

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CLICK HERE for Kansas City Scrooge of the Year Nominees

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