Our Platform comes down to food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, education and employment. Everyone needs these things and everyone has to have a fair chance to earn them. Our Federal representatives made big promises in the last election, promises they have failed to follow through on. It is time for us to take action at the state level.
We will be seeking universal single payer health care for all New Yorkers. Single payer is the best plan to ensure coverage of all citizens. The current plan of public coverage for the poor and private coverage for the rich and employer-based care sometimes provided for the working class leaves many without coverage and the Federal reforms have not changed that. Single payer is the most effective way to ensure that the money spent on health care will actually be spent on health care rather than lawyers, salesmen, and paperwork.
We need employment not unemployment benefits. Private sector jobs are best, but when the private sector cannot provide enough jobs, the people still need to work. We need to create Employment Offices where anyone who needs work can go to find a job that pays a living wage. If necessary we should reconstitute a state version of the Roosevelt-Era Works Progress Administration. I have in my life been out of work. I have received unemployment benefits. It is not good for a person to be without work, even if he is still receiving money. A person needs to feel that he is doing something worthwhile and earning the money he receives.
We need to fully fund public education, the future of New York is high tech and knowledge based jobs, cutting education funding is sacrificing the future. We need to provide public funding for education from pre-k all the way through college and professional degrees.
We need to rebuild the physical infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the communications and transportation infrastructure of the state, we need to rebuild the energy infrastructure of the state with locally produced, green, renewable energy sources.
We need a ban on the dangerous practice of Hydrofracking. The people of Onondaga County have good reason to be wary of the pie-in-the-sky promises of the gas companies. The last time big business with big promises came here, they turned Onondaga Lake from a source of life to one of the most polluted waters in the world. The corporations and their money are long gone and we are still cleaning up the mess they left behind.
The Criminal Justice system in New York is broken, Onondaga County is being sued for denials of fundamental rights of prisoners including the right to counsel and for failures to pay Assigned Counsel for work performed. We need among other reforms a statewide Public Defenders Office funded and administered from Albany to replace the current county by county hodge-podge of public defenders, legal aid societies, and assigned counsel.
And we need to pay the bills for all the work that needs to be done. New York’s current budget gap could be closed completely without increase the working people’s taxes. The State rebated $16 billion on the Stock Transfer Tax this past year, money that goes to swell bankers’ profits.
The state cannot continue to operate on deficits aggravated by the legislator’s failure to pass an on time budget. Americans do not like taxes because Americans do not get much for their money. I propose to see to it that we receive value for our money.
Lastly we need to reform the structure of government in Albany. Democratize legislative rules to empower rank-and-file legislators and legislative committees, eliminate member items and other patronage machine money that cements the power monopoly of legislative leaders. We need nonpartisan redistricting, geographically contiguous redistricting, the 119th District map looks like a big lizard is eating the south side of Syracuse.
Members of the Assembly are paid a base salary of $79,500 and regard it as a part time job, with many continuing as partners in for profit law firms and other businesses that often do business with the state or with persons interested in state legislation. I believe $80,000 is a full time wage and your legislators should work full time for you. When I am elected I will close my private law office and will not accept paid work while I am working for the people of New York.
