A Revenue Generation Playbook - Action Center on Race and the Economy

How to Fully Fund Our Communities

Communities across the country are organizing to redirect resources toward meeting community needs and achieving genuine and lasting safety for all of us.

Many are targeting police, prosecutor, jail and prison budgets that are looting resources from health care, housing, education, employment and income support, violence prevention and interruption programs, youth services and community infrastructure through campaigns to defund police, close jails, and shrink prison populations. While these efforts represent critical steps on the path to generating and investing resources into community safety and well-being, more is needed to fully and sustainably meet our collective needs. We need to democratically reimagine how our cities pay for the infrastructure and services we need to create safe and equitable communities in which everyone can live and thrive in.

There are two primary ways that local governments pay for our city services: (1) tax revenue, money generated from taxes and (2) financing, issuing debt or borrowing that typically relies on Wall Street banks.

  • Tax the Rich and Use Progressive Revenue to Fund our Communities
  • Cancel Wall Street and Choose Progressive Finance