Amara Enyia releases 2 Years of Tax Returns with plan for Economic Justice

CHICAGO – Today, Amara Enyia released her 2016 and 2017 tax returns in conjunction with an economic justice platform to address predatory policies that impose significant economic barriers on low-income communities, demonstrating her commitment to building an equitable Chicago as she campaigns to become the next Mayor of Chicago.

View Amara’s Economic Justice plan here.

“I have faced some of the many obstacles that low-income families and communities of color face all throughout our city,” said Amara Enyia, candidate for mayor of Chicago. “Rather than releasing my tax returns just to check-off an arbitrary box, I’m releasing a blueprint to help create economic justice by addressing government policies that force people to choose between paying fines or paying basic living expenses. We’re invested in resisting the status quo and thinking hard about new ways to build Chicago’s economy and rebuild its culture of community.”

Enyia’s Economic Justice Platform is a series of proposals to address governmental policies that effectively punish people for being poor. The plan outlines a progressive, productive approach to sustaining the local economy – not punitive.

While Chicago leads the nation in bankruptcies, nearly 25 percent of people making less than $15,000 a year report outstanding ticket debt. Additionally, people from minority communities are 40 percent more likely to be issued vehicle-related tickets and fines, even though white communities own more vehicles. This plan addresses policies that have trapped low-income residents in cycles of hardship and poverty. When people lose their licenses and cars, they lose their jobs. When people lose their jobs, they lose their livelihoods.

Some of what the plan calls for:

• Ban the boot so that Chicagoans will never lose mobility as a penalty for owing debt

• Initiate equity audit of all city agencies and departments to confront the city’s history of disparity, and create public-facing performance benchmarks to ensure accountability and progress

• Replace the existing Chicago vehicle immobilization payment plan with a progressive repayment plan, lowering the barrier for lower-income constituents to pay off their debt

• Allow Chicagoans to repay their debt in public service in lieu of payment

For the full economic justice plan, click here.

More About Amara Enyia

A candidate for Mayor of Chicago, Amara Enyia is a community advocate, lawyer, PhD, daughter of activists and defender of the public. She is currently director of the Austin Chamber of Commerce in Chicago and Chief Executive Officer of ACE Municipal Partners, a consulting firm for city policy and planning. Amara also founded the Institute for Cooperative Economics and Economic Innovation, a social lab whose primary purpose is to expand innovative and cooperative economic models that will diversify Chicago’s economy at the community level.

Calling the West Side of Chicago home, Amara’s goal is to help communities unlock their civic imagination to drive solutions for Chicago’s most pressing issues. She has worked in city government, run non-profits and advocated at the grassroots level for overlooked communities.