WIVB
by Michele McClintick
Friday, 17 Sep 2010

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Most would say his campaign for governor has no shot, but that isn't stopping a Green Party candidate from trying to take on Carl Paladino and Andrew Cuomo face-to-face.

He stood outside Carl Paladino's campaign headquarters Friday morning in downtown Buffalo, but hasn't actually reached out to his campaign to debate Paladino yet.

Howie Hawkins from Syracuse is running on the Green Party ticket in November, and if you've never heard of him, you're not alone. This is just his second stop to western New York on his campaign trail.

The former UPS worker and Teamsters leader says the way to clean up New York State is with a progressive tax reform starting with Wall Street. One of his ideas is a 50 percent bankers bonus tax could give New York $10 billion in revenue instead of draining the pockets of those who can't afford it.

"So the janitor at Trump Towers is paying higher taxes, if you count state and local taxes, than Trump himself. If we went back to the tax structure we had in the 70's, 95 percent of us would pay lower taxe rates, yet the state would take in $8 billion more in taxes," said Hawkins.

Andrew Cuomo is said to have raised over $20 million for his campaign. Carl Paladino has already spent around $4 million and says he'll spend what it takes. Hawkins, on the other hand, has only raised around $24,000 for his Green Party campaign. He plans to travel the state with his message until November 2nd. To find out more about his campaign, follow this link.