Utica Phoenix
by Mark Ziobro
September 29th, 2010

On a layover between a press conference at the State Office Building in Utica, NY, and a Meet and Greet scheduled for tonight in Little Falls, Green Party candidate for New York State Governor Howie Hawkins found time to stop by the Utica Phoenix office and share his platform, his campaign and his thoughts.

The race for governor comes at a time when many New York State residents are feeling the burn of the budget and job cuts that have recently befallen citizens due to the countrywide recession. While not issuing blame at the past but looking toward the future, Hawkins, and the Green Party are looking toward a future filled with legitimate, solvable problems, where government can come together with solutions, instead of becoming intertwined in debate.

“We need more proportional representation in legislature,” Hawkins said in response to how America could become more receptive to third party candidates, such as the Green Party. More political parties, and more players, can foster an atmosphere of creative thinking and progress, and decrease negativity, according to Hawkins. He also stated that people who are afraid to vote for a third party candidate because they feel their vote will be wasted are unwillingly helping to sustain the 2-party design.

“Nader, and his ideas, was preferred in many polls,” Hawkins explained, yet in the end, the election went to the established 2 party candidates. What Hawkins explained happens, is that in many cases people will vote for democrats not because they are strongly for their platform, but because they don’t want a republican to win. By doing so, third party candidates, and their ideas, seldom see the light of day.

Lowering welfare for the rich and institutionalizing a single-payer healthcare system in this country are some of the other platform ideals that Hawkins feels will make our country stronger and foster more community. Like the issue over third party candidates, Hawkins feels a single-payer, universal healthcare is something that most citizens want, yet we seem no closer as a country to achieving. “Polls [including doctors] in favor of a single-payer system or some kind of universal healthcare have never been below 54%, and have reached as high as 70%,” Hawkins said. “What we need is a party that represents the people, and not corporate interests.”

The issue of the Wall Street Transfer Tax, brought up as a cause for many of New York State’s financial problems, was also revisited by Hawkins. Currently, 100% of all monies collected by New York State from Wall Street firms for stock transfers are rebated back to the firms, adding up to roughly $16 Billion dollars per year. “We are dealing with a situation where leaders control the rank and file,” he said in response to the Stock Transfer Tax issue. In his speech at MVCC this August, Ralph Nader stated fear of Wall Street reprisals, along with citizens being misinformed on the issue, has led to this tax question being ignored in the legislature. When I asked what forces could be at work in the perpetuation of this issue, Hawkins intimated Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver to be one of the guiding forces keeping this issue out of the legislature, and, subsequently, not voted on.

The real issue, according to Hawkins, is to move forward as a country, and not backward. The things that detract, and take away energy from this mission should be viewed as a detriment. Hawkins mentioned that in order to rebuild this country, jobs should be available for all, and we would have to take a long, hard look at our carbon-burning habits in order to preserve the planet for future generations.

“We should be carbon-free in 10 years,” Hawkins said in response to what could be done to use more renewable energy sources and protect our planet. Becoming, as a nation, less reliant on burning carbon-bases products, he feels is the only way that we can slow down global warming. “We are at 390 points per million [of carbon] in the atmosphere currently,” he said, admitting that at this rate the climate can change, causing inimical changes in the atmosphere. Change, he feels is not impossible, but technically possible. “It is technically possible,” he said, stating that we were able to mobilize as a nation for war “in one year” when it was needed [during World War II], and that the same mobilization can be accomplished for a carbon free economy to protect our planet.

Hawkins delivered Mass Transit, as well as opening up jobs to everyone, as a solution to the very real problem of unemployment in our country. “We need to plan out jobs in Public Works and in the Public Sectors,” he said, speaking of employment offices, instead of unemployment offices, citing WPA (Works Progress Association)-type jobs as one solution to our national unemployment rate. First, he says, we stop rebating the $16 billion stock transfer tax, we lower tax breaks to the rich, and tax bonuses that New York State bankers gave themselves after American citizens helped to bail them out.

Hawkins proposal would put people to work who want to work, which, he feels, is most. “People want to work,” he said. “We need to give them the chance to exercise that.”

The Green Party, Hawkins feels is not just a political party, but about protecting the environment and the people in it. He hopes that people will come to learn about their cause, while at the same time being true to their call to patriotism. American citizens, he feels, are the ones in the trenches, getting things done. “We need a revolt by the voters,” Hawkins said. “And the Green Party is that vehicle.”