Local communities should have home rule power to raise the minimum wage above the state level.

Cuomo's budget shows he cares more about providing tax benefits and giveaways to those who donated $40,000 to his campaign than he does about meeting the needs of families struggling on $40,000 a year.

State Comptroller Tom Di Napoli is opposing the call for him to divest the state's pension plans from fossil fuel companies, on the grounds that he can be more effective using the state's stock ownership to do shareholder activism. Howie Hawkins responded today in a meeting with the Comptroller's office, including the following written statement, "Divestment, Not Shareholder Resolutions."

New York needs full public campaign financing, not Cuomo's proposed matching funds system of partial public campaign financing.

Howie Hawkins' response to Gov. Cuomo's State of the State address.

For most New Yorkers, especially the more than one million who are unemployed or underemployed, the lack of jobs is the most critical issue. And with our state and country facing the greatest recession in seventy years, it is imperative that government policies at all levels provide a cost effective economic stimulation.

Progressive tax reform, starting with ending the rebate of billions of dollars annually from the Stock Transfer Tax, should at the top of the list for three reasons: for fiscal responsibility, for jobs and economic recovery, and for providing needed public services.