Green Party Releases Its Progressive Agenda Ahead of Hochul’s State of the State 

1/9/24 - The Green Party of New York said that Governor Hochul’s State of the State failed to lay out the bold action needed to deal with the multiple crisis facing New York. “The Governor remains more committed to protecting her campaign donors rather than making the investments needed to lift up the average New Yorkers, many of whom continue to face significant economic challenges following the COVID epidemic. Threats to democracy and to the well-being of the average New Yorkers remains a bipartisan effort,” said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the Green Party.

The Greens released its progressive agenda for 2024, including ballot access reform to restore third party political rights, enacting Ranked Choice Voting and proportional representation, passing single-payer universal healthcare, and needed housing reforms including rent control, constructing a million units of publicly owned social housing, and good-cause eviction. The party argued for immediate action on climate change, and said that taxing the rich, including stopping the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax, would help pay for needed reforms and social program expansion including reinvestment in impacted communities.

While the Party was encouraged that the Governor is proposing at least part of the NY Heat Act to curtail the promotion of and subsidies for fossil fuels, they criticized the Hochul administration for failing to meet the deadlines laid out in the state's new climate law on how it plans to meet its relatively weak goals to reduce global emissions. According to a recent report by Dr. James Hansen, the world will have already passed the target of 1.5 degrees C warming before NY even adopts its legally required plan on how to reduce emissions. “No wonder the UN has said that governments' slow climate action has opened up the Gates of Hell. And delaying Hochul’s weak carbon pricing plan just allows more fuel to be thrown into the fire,” noted Mark Dunlea of the EcoAction Committee of the U.S. Green Party.

Hochul did lay out a number of small but important climate steps, but fell far short of treating the situation as a climate emergency. Noticeably absent was any mention the Hochul intended to have NYPA launched a major expansion of publicly owned renewable energy as authorized in last year’s budget, nor was there any mention of public ownership of the transmission grid. While Hochul has indicated that $3 billion a year will be raised by how delayed cap-and-trade program, her speech fell far short on outlining a plan to begin investing the $10 to $20 billion of annual funding needed for a rapid transition to clean energy. She did announce support for making polluters to pay for the damages they have caused, such as enacting the Climate Superfund Act. The Party wished that her Solar for All was actually for all residents. It also supports far greater funding for environmental justice and Just Transition programs.

“The climate emergency is at a crucial point. We must solve the climate crisis so that our children have a chance for a decent future. The Green New Deal, which we first called for in Howie Hawkins’ 2010 gubernatorial race, will also meet the economic needs of our state’s residents. Single payer health care would reduce overall healthcare spending while ensuring that everyone’s health care needs, including COVID, are met,” added Dunlea. 

In addition to funding Green New Deal initiatives, the Greens call for an ecosocialist Green New Deal to move rapidly towards a renewable energy economy. The party said it strongly opposes Gov. Hochul’s cap-and-trade solution and that the CLCPA was an example of the Democrat’s tepid response to the worsening climate catastrophe. They called for major subsidies to enact rapid decarbonization of all buildings in the state including heat pumps, geothermal, and energy conservation. Greens called for a rapid expansion of funds for mass transit and that all new vehicles should be electric by 2030.  The Greens want a target date of zero emissions as soon as possible (2030), rather than the 30-year goal under the state law, which would still allow emissions to be 15% of 1990 levels. The Greens back an immediate halt to all new fossil fuel infrastructure, increased public ownership and democratic control of the energy system and a robust carbon tax in all sectors to make polluters pay for the damages they cause with fossil fuels.

The Greens said that New York State must become a gold standard for electoral reform. They mentioned that New York is an outlier in recent years, as most states have loosened ballot access laws rather than restricting them. Reform of ballot access laws would give New Yorkers more choices and help combat the widespread and continual corruption in state government from both the Democrats and Republicans.

“Democracy continues to be in a fragile condition in New York and nationwide, with both parties engaged in corruption and suppression of democratic rights. Cuomo used the cover of COVID to kill independent small parties in the state budget. We demand the so-called progressive Democrats with a Legislative supermajority who told us they opposed what was happening to have the courage to stand up and do what is right for New Yorkers. That includes raising the taxes on billionaires and other rich New Yorkers to close the massive budget deficit from COVID,” said  Gloria Mattera, state party co-chair.

“Governor Hochul’s attempt to legalize Accessory Dwelling Units and force municipalities to build housing hit a roadblock last year because it was dependent on private property interests doing so. As a party we agree that housing reform is absolutely necessary, but the only way to get there is through public investment and ownership of housing. We need a committed program of public social housing that provides a million units for working-class and middle-class families across the state. Additionally, we need to pass strong tenant protection like rent control, good-cause eviction, and legalizing Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) to shift away from the bankrupt suburban, single-family home model,” added Mattera.

The Greens have also been long-term proponents of stopping the multi-billion dollar annual rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax. “It is long past time we make the rich pay their fair share of taxes, instead of making New York the long-time leader in economic inequality. We won’t solve the climate crisis or systemic racism or a host of other social problems until we embrace ecosocialism, putting the needs of average people and the planet ahead of the profits and well-being of a few,” said Peter LaVenia, state party co-chair.

Wondering if there are any projects movements or orgs that have specifically tried to provide employment to unhoused people that may suffer from mental health issues or drug addictions.

I'm making a lot of assumptions here but it seems like some of the solidarity economy principles could be helpful for providing people with less exploitative, rigid work. Work doesn't necessarily have to revolve around strict guidelines, or scheduling and people can be paid proportionally for their time based on the earnings of the enterprise.

I'm thinking work that is mostly automated but still may require some human input. One would need some capital or means of production but if there is benefit to the unhoused maybe it could be subsidized.