Utica, NY (WIBX) - About two dozen people gathered at Congressman Richard Hanna's Utica office today calling for corporations and the rich to 'pay their fair share.'

Ted Tottey is a member of MoveOn.org, which organized the event and similiar protests across the country, he said.

The group delivered a letter to staff inside Hanna's office saying "...working families are paying taxes to support our federal government, they are doing so patriotically. However, many of our nation's largest and most profitable corporations - including Bank of America, General Electric, BP, FedEx, Boeing, Google, Amazon, Chase, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, and WellsFargo - are paying no taxes at all."

"Shouldn't these huge companies pay at least as much as our families do?", the letter asked.

Tottey says while the highest tax bracket is 35-percent, the group doesn't believe the top 2-percent of earners actually pay that much.

"There are so many loopholes, there are so many incentives, there are so many ways that people in that tax bracket can get around paying that much that they end up paying far less that some of us that are simply middle class," Tottey said.

Tottey mentioned the first bill Hanna sponsored this year, the American Competitiveness Act, which would lower the federal corporate tax rate to 25-percent.

"But, no where in that bill does [Hanna] state that the rich and corporations and businesses should pay a minimum of 25-percent. That would help a lot," Tottey said.

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The group also condemned Rep. Paul Ryan's "Path to Prosperity" budget proposal, which Hanna recently voted for.

The bill would ..."[reduce] corporate taxes even further, while slashing Medicare, Medicaid, Pell Grants and other programs that help working families," the letter read.

While Ryan's budget did pass the Republican controlled House of Representatives, it is not expected to make it through the Democratic Senate.

"Please vote "No" on any plan to give trillions to corporate interests and stick working families with the bill," the letter read.

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