Green Mayoral Candidate Howie Hawkins to Run for a Sustainable Syracuse

• by Urban CNY News
• May 4, 2017

Green Party’s mayoral candidate, Howie Hawkins, made his candidacy official Thursday. He said he is running for a “Sustainable Syracuse,” which he described as “a fiscally, economically, and ecologically sustainable prosperity.” Speaking to reporters and supporters Thursday afternoon at the Event Center on the south side of Syracuse, Hawkins outlined an “action plan” of policies to bring about his Sustainable Syracuse vision. Among the policies he discussed were progressive tax reforms, a public power utility for more affordable and renewable energy, a community hiring hall to get more city residents and minorities into city-funded jobs, a municipal development bank focused on developing worker cooperatives, inclusionary zoning to expand affordable housing and reduce segregation by race and class, and neighborhood assemblies for participatory budgeting and community planning. Hawkins said he plans to win the mayoral election with a grassroots strategy emphasizing talking directly to voters at their doors and raising his campaign budget from a large number of small donors. He said he will refuse contributions from for-profit businesses because he wants “to represent people, not corporations.” He will also limit contributors to a maximum donation of $1,000 even though the legal limit for the mayor’s race is $3,436.50 for individuals, corporations, and PACs. His full statement, “For a Sustainable Syracuse,” follows. For a Sustainable Syracuse Declaration of Candidacy by Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for Mayor of Syracuse May 4, 2017 A mayoral candidate ought to provide voters with a Strategic Vision for where he or she wants Syracuse to move during his or her administration and an Action Plan for getting there. Strategic Vision My strategic vision for Syracuse is a Sustainable Syracuse that uplifts its poor and working-class people and retains and attracts middle-class residents and businesses. The city is becoming sustainable fiscally, economically, and ecologically. The city enjoys an ecologically and economically sustainable prosperity that is building a safe, healthy, and lively urban environment thanks to city support for community-owned enterprises, neighborhood-based planning, and increased environmental and cultural amenities. The city is fiscally sustainable. Progressive tax reform has increased revenues so that city budgets can provide the services, infrastructure, utilities, and law enforcement to support a sustainable prosperity. Education, housing, employment, and business opportunities are fair, equal, and desegregating by race and class because the city is enforcing equal employment, minority contracting, fair housing, inclusionary zoning, and other anti-discrimination and desegregation laws and policies. Worker- and community-owned businesses are growing to provide living wages and wealth accumulation for working class and middle class residents. Infrastructure and utilities – including energy, broadband, public transportation, city planning, and sidewalks – are publicly-owned, modernized, affordable, and reliable, and improving living standards and the economy by lowering the cost of living and doing business in the city. Community policing and neighborhood safety programs are reducing shootings and crime overall and improving community-police relations. The formerly incarcerated have the support they need to reintegrate productively into neighborhoods. Drug abuse and addiction is treated as a health problem rather than a criminal problem and drug treatment is available to all who need it. Voting and civic engagement of all sorts by city residents has grown significantly as people participate in neighborhood assemblies, participatory budgeting, and reformed elections that feature proportional representation for common council and the school board, ranked-choice voting for mayor and auditor, and public campaign finance. Persistent Problems Syracuse city government has been in a reactive mode for too long. Instead of its own initiatives to set its own direction, it has been reacting to crises and the actions of others. As a result, the city suffers from persistent and growing problems, including: chronic structural fiscal deficits that yield austerity budgets year after year; growing poverty, segregation, and inequality; a labor market that largely relegates the city’s working class to low-wage, no-benefit, dead-end jobs; economic stagnation; aging infrastructure; overpriced utilities; fraught community-police relations amidst persistent crime and violence; “struggling” public schools facing state receivership and privatization; city planning by private developers for upscale projects at the expense of affordable housing, neighborhood improvement, and environmental sustainability; and growing voter alienation, abstention, and disempowerment. It’s time for new proactive approaches. We cannot afford to continue the same old policies. Action Plan My action plan to address these problems and achieve my strategic vision is built around six themes. 1. Progressive Tax Reform Progressive Tax Reform to make taxes fairer and increase city revenues is essential for the city to provide the good schools, economic opportunities, political empowerment, and safe, healthy, and lively neighborhoods that will uplift poor and working-class people and retain and attract middle-class residents and businesses. With sufficient fiscal resources, our city can make significant progress. Without sufficient resources, the city will continue to struggle to address its persistent problems. Among the progressive tax reforms I will pursue to increase city revenues and make the tax burden more fair and progressive are: a City Income Tax on residents and commuters alike; Increased State Revenue Sharing to pay for unfunded state mandates; Land Value Taxation to tax the market value of land parcels but not their built improvements in order to encourage home improvement and business development and discourage the holding of vacant land and empty buildings for speculative purposes; metro-wide Property Tax Sharing so all municipalities benefit from development instead of competing with each other for it; renewal of the current Sales Tax Sharing agreement with the county when it expires in 2020; the New York Health Act to provide a single-payer public health insurance and take health insurance costs off of the city budget; Property Tax Relief as progressive tax reforms increase revenue. 2. Equal Opportunities in Schools, Housing, Jobs, and City Contracts I will improve and enforce equal opportunity and anti-discrimination policies in order to open up better opportunities to low-income and minority residents. These policies will include inclusionary zoning in housing, desegregation in schooling, a community hiring hall, and strong enforcement of equal employment, minority contracting, and fair housing laws. 3. Living-Wage Jobs and Community-Owned Enterprises The fastest way to get good jobs to city residents is to make sure they get their fair share of city-funded jobs. I will establish a city-certified Community Hiring Hall to serve as a primary source for hiring for city and city-contractor jobs in order to meet affirmative action goals for city resident and minority hiring in equal employment opportunity, minority contracting, and community benefit agreement programs. The best longer term strategy to create living-wage jobs is to build community-owned enterprises that build community wealth. It is time to stop giving so many tax breaks to private developers and start investing in community-owned enterprises where we own our own jobs and the wealth created is anchored to our community by democratic ownership structures. By community-owned enterprises I include owner-operated small businesses, consumer cooperatives, public enterprises providing such utilities as power, broadband, and sidewalks, and especially worker cooperatives. I will establish a Municipal Development Bank for planning, financing, and technically assisting new community-owned enterprises, especially new worker cooperatives that pay living wages and build