Howie Hawkins for Governor
Green Party - www.howiehawkins.org

For Immediate Release:
May 22, 2010

For More Info:
Howie Hawkins, 315 425-1019
Mark Dunlea, 518 860-3725

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for Governor, today welcomed Andrew Cuomo's formal entry into the race but challenged Cuomo to put his campaign rhetoric into practice.

"While Mr. Cuomo starts his announcement by attacking bankers and Wall Street for our state's problems, he fails to join me in supporting the call to tax Wall Street to bail out New York. He says he wants campaign finance and ethics reform. We all know that he will raise more money than the other Gubernatorial candidates. Why not pledge not to take any campaign contributions from Wall Street, bankers or any interest that does business with the state?" asked Hawkins.

Hawkins said that Cuomo's announcement was strikingly similar to for Governor Spitzer's platform four years ago, leading him to wonder if they had hired the same speech writers. Hawkins challenged Cuomo to participate in a series of public forums with the other gubernatorial candidates to discuss the future of the state.

"The Democrats always promise voters change but once elected maintain the status quo to benefit the special interests that finance their elections. Cuomo's call to increase disclosure of conflicts of interests is far weaker than the Green Party platform to eliminate such legalized bribery through full public funding of elections. And he wants to solve the state budget crisis by cutting spending such as for state workers and schools. He ignores that the root cause of the problem is not spending but the huge tax cuts for the wealthy that began when he was helping his father as Governor. Instead of spending caps, we need the wealthy and Wall Street to pay their fair share," Hawkins noted.

Hawkins has called upon the state to keep the $16 billion it rebates annually to Wall Street speculators from the stock transfer tax. He also supports higher taxes on millionaires and a special tax on the record bonuses for bankers and Wall Street financiers.

Hawkins dismissed as grossly inadequate Cuomo's plan to help the state's 850,000 unemployed individuals by give corporations a tax credit of $3,000. "We need a robust public works program that give all New Yorkers a living wage job if the private sector can't hire them," added Hawkins, a member of the Teamsters who unloads trucks at UPS for a living.

Hawkins noted that Cuomo barely mentioned the environment and ignored key issues such as ending the drug war, racism, same sex marriage, poverty, hunger, universal health care, housing.

"The one thing that Cuomo got right is that voters want change. Voting for change means voting for the Green Party, not voting for the revolving door of the same old Democrats and Republicans who have been messing things up for working people for the last 150 years," noted Hawkins