PROVIDENCE – With the deadline to file federal income tax returns just hours away, some Rhode Islanders plan to mark the day with dueling demonstrations over government spending priorities.
Taxpayers have until midnight tonight to file their income tax returns or request an extension with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS says it expects to get more than 20 million tax returns this week, in addition to the roughly 102 million it had received through the end of last week, according to The Associated Press.
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Unlike in prior years, Providence’s main post office on Corliss Street will close at 9 p.m. tonight rather than stay open until midnight for last-minute filers. But a postal spokeswoman said individuals who drop their returns in the blue mailbox will still have them postmarked April 15.
Two groups with different views on how those tax dollars should and should not be used will hold demonstrations in the city today.
From 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., a group of activists plan to greet tax filers at the Corliss Street post office to protest the cost of the war in Iraq and the defense budget. The groups that will be represented include the American Friends Service Committee, Ocean State Action, Declaration of Peace Campaign Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Mobilization Committee to End War and Occupation.
“Rhode Islanders have spent billions of dollars on the war in Iraq and continue to do so,” Martha Yager of the Friends Service Committee said in a statement. “The military budget, bloated with funding outdated weapons systems and 300 percent cost overruns that would be completely unacceptable in any other part of government, continues to suck up over half of our nation’s discretionary spending.”
“With that money, we could have avoided the state’s deficit, funded Head Start, health care and education, and have been ready to help families hit hard by the state’s recession,” she added.
Fiscal conservatives plan to hold their own “Tax Day Tea Party” protest in front of the Statehouse in Providence from 3 to 6 p.m. The event will coincide with hundreds of other rallies that will be held today in as many as 2,000 cities nationwide, organizers said.
The event, which was organized by Pawtucket resident Colleen Conley and will be hosted by WHJJ-AM radio host Helen Glover, will feature more than a dozen speakers. They are scheduled to include the radio host John DePetro; Justin Katz, who writes the Anchor Rising blog; James Beale, president of the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition; and Robert Healey Jr., who ran for lieutenant governor in 2006.
The Tea Party protesters will call on politicians to reduce government spending and cut taxes. “On the part of both state and federal elected leaders, I think they need to take a hard look at what they’re spending our money on, and re-prioritize,” Conley told Providence Business News. “There’s a lot of wasteful spending out there.”
