For immediate release: July 31, 2018

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that while the new study on single payer healthcare by the RAND Corporation underestimated the potential savings, it still documented the need for New York to enact the program.

“It is long past time to make access to quality healthcare a universal right in New York and nationally. As Governor, I will include the New York Health Act in my first budget proposal – something Cuomo refused to do last year after stating support for single payer. People will no longer have to worry about how to provide healthcare for their loved ones. It will also reduce costs for consumers and businesses,” said Hawkins, a long-time advocate for single payer healthcare.

For immediate release: July 30, 2018

Hawkins Says Nixon’s Support for Mayor Bloomberg’s Policies is Shocking

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said he was shocked that Cynthia Nixon told the NY Times she would not be running for Governor if Michael Bloomberg was the incumbent.

“Michael Bloomberg promoted the corporatization of the NYC school system, promoted racial discrimination by the NYC police department through stop-and-frisk, and presided over the gentrification of the city making it unaffordable for working-class New Yorkers. He did nothing to fix the growing problems with public housing and the city subway system as they continued to deteriorate,” said Hawkins.

Mayor Bloomberg publicly defended the growing income inequality in the city, saying “That’s not a measure of something we should be ashamed of.” Bloomberg defended driving up housing prices to make them unaffordable for many, saying it was a good way to bring in new investment.

Hawkins said it was especially startling to hear of Nixon’s support for Bloomberg in light of his education policies. “Bloomberg’s education policies are indistinguishable from that of Cuomo,” Hawkins noted.

For immediate release: July 26, 2018

Opposes High-Stakes Testing, Privatization, Charter Schools

(Syracuse) The Green Party candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor – Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee – were at the State Capitol on Wednesday to call for an overhaul of the state’s education policies, including more funding for schools in low-income communities; a move away from high-stakes testing and privatization, including charter schools; and the election of a Governor who supports rather than attacks teachers, especially following the Janus decision.

The Greens say the state should close the $4.2 billion cumulative shortfall in Foundation Aid funding that was intended to meet the requirements of the 2006 ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. They say the should settle, not fight in court, the lawsuits from New York City/Syracuse parents and the Small Cities for full Foundation Aid funding.

Lee, a NYC public school teacher and recent candidate for UFT president, said the “best way to improve education is end the racial, class, and academic segregation in public schools. Integration has been the most powerful progressive education reform since Brown v. Board of Education by far.” Schools in New York City are the most segregated in the country and schools in upstate metropolitan regions are among the most segregated in the nation.

For immediate release: July 26, 2017

Calls for Increased School Funding, Desegregation

(Rochester) The Green Party candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor – Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee – were in Rochester Thursday to call for an overhaul of the state’s education policies, including more funding for high-poverty school districts; a move away from high stakes testing and privatization, including charter schools; and the election of a Governor who supports rather than attacks teachers, especially following the Janus decision.

Rochester is considered perhaps the worst school district in the state if not the nation. Among districts with at least 2,000 students, Rochester is worst at fourth-grade math and second-worst at fourth-grade English, beating only Syracuse. It has frequent school closings, forcing students and teachers to move from school to school. Since 2002, the district has closed 26 schools (including School 41) and opened 18. Eight percent of elementary school students passed the 2017 reading and math tests and the city's graduation rate remains the worst in the state.

Nationwide less than half the students displaced by closures end up in better schools, according to research from the Center for Research and Education Outcomes at Stanford University.

For immediate release: July 25, 2018

Green Party Calls for Increased School Funding, Desegregation

Opposes High-Stakes Testing, Privatization, Charter Schools

(Albany) The Green Party candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor – Howie Hawkins and Jia Lee - were at the State Capitol on Wednesday to call for an overhaul of the state’s education policies, including more funding for schools in low-income communities; a move away from high-stakes testing and privatization, including charter schools; and the election of a Governor who supports rather than attacks teachers, especially following the Janus decision.

The Greens say the state should close the $4.2 billion cumulative shortfall in Foundation Aid funding that was intended to meet the requirements of the 2006 ruling in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity case. They say the should settle, not fight in court, the lawsuits from New York City/Syracuse parents and the Small Cities for full Foundation Aid funding.

The Greens favor home rule for school governance and elected school boards. They oppose the mayoral control that has been enacted in New York City.

For immediate release: July 18, 2018

Hawkins Calls for State Action on Child Lead Poisoning

(Syracuse) Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, today called for statewide action to address the exposure of children to lead contamination.

Speaking in front of the Westside Academy at Blodgett in a Syracuse neighborhood with high levels of child lead poisoning, Hawkins called for state to adopt the more stringent federal safety standard (5 micrograms versus 10) for lead levels in blood tests; enact a statewide law that rental units must have lead-safe certification before renting; called for the state to adopt federal standards that would improve lead abatement practices; and require annual testing for lead in drinking water in schools (with remediation if needed). Hawkins said all levels of government needed to step up their enforcement and implementation of existing rules and programs related to lead poisoning.

Syracuse is the child lead poisoning capital of the nation. 40% of Syracuse children had blood lead levels between 5 and 10 micrograms per deciliter, while 16% had levels exceeding 10 micrograms per deciliter.

"It is inexcusable for Syracuse to have the nation’s highest child lead poisoning 46 years after the Surgeon General’s 1971 urgent recommendation to prevent and treat lead poisoning in children. Safe housing is a right. It's a crime to rent properties that poison children,” said Hawkins who lives in Syracuse.

For immediate release: July 13, 2018

Green Candidates Call for Social Ownership of Economy, Democratic Socialism

Support a Public Bank, Expanded Public Ownership of Energy, Public Housing, Single-Payer Health Care and Cooperatives

The Green Party candidates for Governor and State Comptroller called today for a variety of democratic-ownership  initiatives, including a public bank, public ownership of the energy system, public broadband utility and worker cooperatives.

Howie Hawkins, the Green gubernatorial candidate and a long-time member of the Socialist Party, noted that “socialism is back on the table for public discussion after the broad support for self-styled democratic socialists in recent elections since Bernie Sanders’ presidential run. But as a long-time democratic socialist, I believe that the agenda needs to start with social ownership and democratic control of the key sectors of our economy, combined with a much expanded public housing program and creation of a single-payer health care system.”

Dunlea said expanding public ownership of energy was critical to winning the fight against climate change. The Governor did propose allowing the NY Power Authority to build and own renewables but this was rejected by the state legislature. Public ownership and control would increase community support and speed up local siting of projects, as has been true in Germany. NY presently only gets 4% of its electricity from wind and solar.

For immediate release: July 12, 2018

Statement of Howie Hawkins on Guilty Verdicts in Buffalo Billion Trial

We Need an Independent Moreland Commission to Investigate Corruption within the Cuomo Administration

The guilty verdicts in the Buffalo Billion Trial are no surprise. The bid-rigging was obvious from the media reports on the trial.

Along with the Percocco conviction, it shows a systemic pattern of corruption within the Cuomo administration that demands an outside independent investigation. When the Moreland Commission began to ask questions about the relationship between his many major donors, especially from the real estate industry, and the contracts, subsidies, and regulatory favors he issued, he immediately moved to shut it down. 

The pattern of bid rigging in the recent trial raises grave concerns about how many other bids were rigged by these and other pay-to-play contributors to Cuomo. For example, why did Cor Development’s Aiello and Gerardi, guilty in this case, get the former public housing project Kennedy Square in Syracuse in a no-bid, no-money-down transfer from ESD to SUNY Upstate Medical to Cor Development? All the people guilty in this trial, plus Cuomo and Percoco, were here in Syracuse to tout that deal.

It is time to reopen a Moreland Commission on Public Corruption and let it do its work without the governor shutting it down when it gets close to him. I believe Preet Bharara might be available.

For immediate release: July 12, 2018

Howie Hawkins responded to fellow candidate for Governor of New York Cynthia Nixon’s plan for ending voter suppression with support for her proposals but serious concern for what was left out.

“Early voting, automatic and same-day voter registration are important steps toward real democracy, but the most pervasive form of voter suppression is our ‘winner-take-all’ electoral system that silences many of those who manage to vote, and discourages millions from voting at all. Why vote when most districts are non-competitive because they are dominated by one party in our single-member-district, winner-take-all system,” said Hawkins.

The Hawkins campaign and the Green Party support Ranked-Choice Instant-Runoff Voting for single-member executive offices and Proportional Representation in legislative bodies. These voting systems are common in most of the world’s democracies.