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Hawkins Testifies that NYS Climate Bill Must Aim for 100% Clean Energy by 2030
For immediate release: February 12, 2019
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor in 2018, submitted testimony to today to a legislative hearing on climate policy.
“Climate science indicates that industrial states like New York must build out a 100% decarbonized clean energy economy by 2030 if the world is to preserve a climate that remains safe for human civilization. The climate clock is ticking down. Strong climate legislation must pass this year,” Hawkins said.
Read moreHawkins Supports Green New Deal for New York Act
State Capitol, Albany: February 11, 2019
“This bill encompasses the key concepts of the Green New Deal for New York that the Green Party has been campaigning for since 2010—the science-based climate safety target of 100% clean energy by 2030, the linkage of climate action to economic rights and security for all, and the urgency of doing the plan and draft legislation within one year," said Howie Hawkins, Green Party of New York State.
Read moreHawkins Response to Cuomo's State of the State: Demand More
The Green Party’s 2018 candidate for governor, Howie Hawkins, issued the statement below in response to Governor Cuomo’s State of the State and Budget address today.
Returning to his campaign’s slogan of “Demand More,” Hawkins said that while progressives should celebrate the social reforms Cuomo rolled out and are likely to pass the state legislature with both houses now with Democratic majorities, progressives should not be satisfied with Cuomo’s conservative economic policies with respect to public services, fiscal policies, energy policy, and economic development.
“Progressives must demand more,” he said.
Hawkins also took Cuomo to task for watering down the Green New Deal that the Green Party has long advocated. Instead of the comprehensive economic justice and climate action program the Greens advocate, Hawkins said Cuomo was using the slogan to market a narrow goal for renewable electric power that is not sufficient to address the climate emergency or the economic problems many New Yorkers face.
Read moreHawkins Declares Mission Accomplished As He Wins Ballot Status for Greens for Third Time in a Row
For immediate release: November 6, 2018
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, declared “mission accomplished” tonight as his vote total surpassed the 50,000 votes needed to maintain a ballot line for the Green Party in New York.
Hawkins successfully regained ballot status for the Greens in 2010 after they lost it in the 2002 election. In 2014, Hawkins won almost 5% of the vote, the highest vote total for an independent left party candidate for governor in New York history and the highest percentage since 1920. Today’s accomplishment is the first time that one candidate has won a ballot line for a third party for three consecutive gubernatorial elections in New York history.
“We have secured a Green Party ballot line in New York state for three consecutive elections by running our own candidates instead of running a major party candidate on our line. That’s a significant achievement in a system designed to create so-called third parties that merely function as extra ballot lines for the Democratic and Republican parties,” said Hawkins.
Read moreVote Today, 6 AM - 9 PM. Green Party. Row D. Defy Cuomo and Trump
6 am, November 6, 2018
Vote today as if our lives depended on it. They do.
Today is election day. Polls are open to 9 PM.
Please vote Row D, Green Party. Most important is our ticket of Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee. Only votes for Governor / Lt Gov count towards the 50,000 threshold needed to continue as a ballot qualified party, which makes it much easier for us to field candidates.
Our other statewide candidates are Mark Dunlea for Comptroller and Michael Sussman for Attorney General. We have more than a dozen Greens running for Congress, State Legislature, City Council and Mayor of Lockport. Read about them here.
Today is also Divestment Tuesday. Mark’s campaign has focused on climate change, starting with the need to get the state to Divest its pension fund from fossil fuels. A vote for Greens is a vote for divestment and climate action.
Call NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli at 518 474-4044. Script: Please divest the NYS pension from fossil fuels. The NYS Attorney General is suing Exxon for defrauding investors like the NYS pension funds, so why would the Comptroller keep investing in such companies? It is wrong to invest the pension fund in companies that are destroying the planet through global warming.
NYC Kids PAC have endorsed Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee due to their outstanding positions on the education issues most public school parents care about, whether it’s keeping the cap on charter schools, more equitable education funding, reducing class size or reforming mayoral control; Jia, in particular, is a NYC teacher and has testified eloquently before Congress on the damage done by high stakes testing.
If you do not know where to vote, you can find it here. https://voterlookup.elections.ny.gov
If you are at a polling place that is the correct polling place for where you presently live at, and the poll workers says you are not listed as a registered voter, you should ask to fill out a provisional ballot, known as an affidavit ballot.
Please remind your friends and neighbors about the importance of voting green.
By voting Green Party on this Election Day you will make sure that we can field independent candidates who take no corporate money, who are teachers, teamsters, college students. Pushing the Democrats who get elected to take the progressive positions they talk about happens when Green Party vote totals are good.
They say New York is a Democratic Party stronghold yet it has the largest gap between rich and poor; the most segregated school system by race and class. New York needs a Green Wave to move our elected officials to care about all of us.
Defy Trump and Cuomo. Vote Green. Row D.
And yes, we still need donations. Grow the revolution.
Thanks
The Green Party
Hawkins Airs TV Ads as Siena Poll Shows 3rd Party Surge
For immediate release: November 4, 2018
Hawkins Begins Airing TV Ads as Siena Poll Shows 3rd Parties Surge
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, has begun to run television ads as the newest Siena College poll shows a surge in support for third party candidates.
Hawkins had been running video ads for several weeks on social media but has now bought cable television ads in the Syracuse and Albany markets, and has been trying to buy time elsewhere.
Seven percent of New Yorkers in the Siena poll said they planned to vote for one of the third party candidates, with Hawkins polling at 2%. He received double that in 2014. Another 7% of the voters are undecided.
Cuomo is badly losing in upstate New York.
“I am the only progressive remaining on the ballot in New York. With Cuomo holding a safe double digit lead over Molinaro, voters need to send Cuomo a message that they demand action on climate, jobs and wages, single payer health care, and progressive education reform,” said Hawkins.
Hawkins said he and the other third party candidates would be doing even better if any television or radio network had broadcast last week’s gubernatorial debate that Cuomo skipped.
“Voter don’t like being taken for granted by politicians,” noted Hawkins. “And there is a lot of displeasure over Cuomo’s performance and the level of corruption he is presiding over and benefiting from.”
Hawkins Calls for Worker Cooperatives and Public Enterprises to Reduce Income Inequality
For immediate release: November 3, 2018
Howie Hawkins, the Green candidate for Governor, said today that to reverse the growing inequality in New York, state policy needs to promote worker cooperatives and public enterprises that distribute income more equitably than capitalist firms.
The share of income going to the top 1% of the state has grown from 12% in 1980 to 33% in 2015. New York has the highest income inequality of any state in the nation.
A new study out this week from the think tank Third Way found that about two-thirds of the jobs in New York’s metropolitan regions don’t pay enough to support what is commonly considered a middle-class lifestyle.
Hawkins has called for public state bank with a division devoted to planning, financing, and advising worker cooperatives. He has also called for public enterprise in the fields of electric power and broadband. He wants to expand public housing in order to increase the supply of affordable housing and reduce rents in the broader market.
Though he has called for more progressive taxation, he said, “Tax and transfer programs can only partially mitigate income inequality. The purpose of taxation is to finance public services and infrastructure. If we really want to reduce economic inequality, we need a fairer distribution in the first place at work.”
Hawkins released the following statement explaining his approach to reducing income inequality in New York State.
Read moreCut Military Budget 50%, Reinvest in NY
For immediate release: November 1, 2018
Green Party candidates call to cut military budget 50% to re-invest in NY domestic needs
Green Party candidates in New York called today for at least a 50% cut in the federal military budget in order to free up funds to invest in combatting climate change and meeting other domestic needs such as education, infrastructure and housing.
“Cutting the military budget is far more important to the well-being of New York residents than Cuomo’s attempts to enable wealthy taxpayers to continue to deduct state and local taxes. Almost two-thirds of the federal discretionary budget now goes to the military budget, which is primarily a bi-partisan deal for pork-barrel spending,” stated Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor.
The Green Party said that the defense budget has little to do with protecting the country from invasion but more to do with using dominant military might to advance the needs of multinational corporations worldwide. Tremendous savings would be possible if we adopted a cooperative approach based on mutual security and respect and worldwide improvements in quality of life. Nuclear disarmament alone would save $60 billion plus annually.
“The US should become the world’s humanitarian superpower and make friends instead of enemies. It would be a lot cheaper than policing the world on behalf of global corporations. The world would be a much safer place,” said Hawkins.
Read moreHawkins: Stop Bomb Trains, Improve Mass Transit with Green New Deal
For immediate release: October 31, 2018
Howie Hawkins Wants NY to Release Results from Train Inspections
Calls for a Green New Deal to create living-wage jobs building clean energy system
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that New York must do more to protect state’s residents from the dangers posed by oil bomb trains in New York.
Hawkins, Dunlea call for Upstate Fiscal Relief
For immediate release: October 30, 2018
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, and Mark Dunlea, the NYS Comptroller candidate, were in Utica on discuss their respective campaigns.
Both candidates want to repeal the state’s 2% cap on local property taxes and replace it with a restoration of state revenue sharing with local governments. State law (Sec. 54 of State Finance Law) used to require the state to share 8% of its revenues with local governments. Under Cuomo, revenue sharing has dropped to 0.4%.
“Upstate New York suffers from the highest property taxes in the country and the Governor’s tax cap has been just a sound-bite gimmick that has done nothing to lower them. The state government has a much broader base than the sales and property tax to finance government operations. Restoring revenue sharing would offset the cost of unfunded mandates and enable local governments to reduce local taxes while making needed investments in services and infrastructure,” said Hawkins.
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