Word: association
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...slogan everything for the rich." Instead he suggested a big injection of funds into a bonus scheme for unemployed people who take jobs. His comments reflect concern among right-wing politicians, and not just in France, that fiddling with inheritance tax will play badly with voters still accustomed to associating the tax with the very rich. In Germany, for example, taxpayer lobbyists argue that the national inheritance-tax threshold should be raised significantly, or the tax abolished altogether. But Michael Jäger, secretary-general of the Bavarian Taxpayers' Association, acknowledges that "any discussion of wealth or inheritance tax immediately...
...goals are broader. "If we change the tax system, we'll strike a liberating blow for the economy," he tells TIME. In France, dozens of small taxpayer groups have sprung up around the country to contest the way local officials spend public money, and a national organization called Contribuables Associés has started ranking members of parliament by their tax-and-spend policy records. "The change of mentality is very recent," says Bernard Zimmern, a businessman who is helping to fund the national campaign. Retired IBM engineer Michel Vergnaud founded one of the local associations in Lyons four years...
...internal budget submissions from departments to the Finance Ministry are public. The fear of being publicly shamed is a powerful incentive not to put in exaggerated demands. "We're pretty satisfied how the money is spent," says Teemu Lehtinen, who heads Finland's 190,000-member Taxpayers' Association. Cut Waste, Fraud and Abuse Last year the French justice ministry set up several homes for teenage delinquents. For one of the first, it acquired an 18th century château in Normandy with a big park and swimming pool, where it employs 27 people to oversee eight young multiple offenders...