A mile and a half from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters is De Anza College, a community college that Steve Wozniak, one of Apple’s founders, attended from 1969 to 1974. Because of California’s state budget crisis, De Anza has cut more than a thousand courses and 8 percent of its faculty since 2008.
Now, De Anza faces a budget gap so large that it is confronting a “death spiral,” the school’s president, Brian Murphy, wrote to the faculty in January. Apple, of course, is not responsible for the state’s financial shortfall, which has numerous causes. But the company’s tax policies are seen by officials like Mr. Murphy as symptomatic of why the crisis exists.
“I just don’t understand it,” he said in an interview. “I’ll bet every person at Apple has a connection to De Anza. Their kids swim in our pool. Their cousins take classes here. They drive past it every day, for Pete’s sake.
“But then they do everything they can to pay as few taxes as possible.”
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Apple’s Tax Strategy Aims at Low-Tax States and Nations - NYTimes.com
So, reading this article from the NY Times about Apple not paying any taxes, and I saw this section from a local college that is taking offense. I think this is the worst kind of journalism, because it is simplistic and doesn’t mean anything. Why is Apple responsible for all of California’s debt and public spending cuts? Why is any one industry or company responsible. These are the laws passed by our legislators, with all the tax loops necessary to not pay taxes. If the government wants corporations to pay their fair share, Congress needs to pass new laws and fix the tax code.
