Westfield Malls, which owns hundreds of shopping malls in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.–including MainPlace in Santa Ana–is shortchanging local communities out of more than $116 million annually, according to a union watchdog.
United Voice, one of Australia's largest unions, makes that claim in a new report that cites the U.S. operations of Westfield, one of Australia's largest companies.
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“Westfield's Two Faces: Community Consequences of Tax Avoidance” claims the company reports to shareholders that its 45 U.S. properties are worth $17.4 billion but only pays taxes on $10.5 billion or 60 percent of the declared values.
If Westfield paid property taxes on the actual values, schools and communities across the U.S. could fund more than 1,500 teachers and $60 million in other essential services per year, according to the report.
Read the full report here: http://westfieldwatch.com.au/. United Voice released it as part of the National Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education, sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers and more than 100 community groups and unions.
Perhaps it will catch the attention of the Santa Ana Unified School District, whose offices are not that far from MainPlace at 800 N. Main St, Santa Ana.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.