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The Legislative Committee of the Green Party today
criticized Governor Pataki budget proposals that continue the drastic
cuts in human services imposed by last year's state budget while seeking
to spend hundreds of millions of dollars for additional tax cuts and
corporate welfare.
"Once again, the Governor is taxing the poor and middle class to
fund tax cuts and corporate welfare for his campaign contributors, the
typical tax and spend agenda of conservatives," stated Steve
Breyman of the Rensselaer County Greens.
The Greens called for enactment of a state universal health care
program, along with significant increases in funding for
education, public colleges, environmental protection, affordable
housing, and job creation. The Greens also supported an expansion of
unemployment insurance, which presently only covers 37% of New York's
workers.
The greens said that such programs could easily be paid for by ending
the rebate on the stock transfer tax; a moderate increase in the
personal income tax rate for the wealthiest New Yorkers; adoption of a
single payer health care system; an increase in the state minimum wage;
and, a repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws. New York presently returns
to Wall Street $8 billion it collects annually from a small tax on stock
transactions.
"For too long the Democrats and Republicans have financed tax
giveaways to their campaign contributors by raising taxes and reducing
services for the rest of us. Pataki is seeking to use September 11 as
another excuse to transfer more funds to his supporters. The Greens
support a state budget that invests in families and children, not fat
cats," said Pete Looker, a Green Party candidate for State Assembly
in the 100th Assembly District.
The Greens called for a closing of various tax loopholes for
corporations and the wealthy, such as the investment tax credit; a delay
in tax cuts that have not yet been phased in; and an increase in the
personal income tax rate for wealthiest taxpayers to the late 1980
levels. The Governor is proposing to continue to phase in more than $300
million in additional tax cuts, including cutting the tax rate on net
income for banks and insurance companies from 8.5% to 7.5%. The
Greens also said that state tax revenues should be increased by raising
the state minimum wage to at least $10 an hour, which would help
stimulate the economy, increase tax collections, and reduce the cost of
the Earned Income Tax Credit and other public benefit programs.
The Greens noted the poor and moderate income families in New York pay a
much higher percentage of their income for local and state taxes than
the wealthy. The poorest 20% of the state's residents pay 16% of their
income in state and local taxes, while the top 1% pay only 9%. Even a
modest one to 2% increase in the personal income tax for wealthy
taxpayers with adjusted gross incomes above $100,000 would generate
several billion dollars.
The Greens said rather than taxing working families to increase state
spending on welfare for the rich and large corporations as George Pataki
has proposed, taxes for low and middle income families and small
businesses should be reduced. The Greens called for the billions
proposed by the Governor in corporate welfare, including an increase of
at least $400 million in 2002-03 outlays, to instead be used to meet the
state's legal requirement (Sec. 54 of State Finance Law) to share eight
percent of its revenues with local governments, which would result in a
lowering of property and sales taxes. The state presently provides less
than 1.4% of it's revenues to local communities.
Aid to New York City would be increased by ending the rebate on the
stock transfer tax and be reinstating the commuter tax. The commuter
tax, repealed by the legislative leaders during a special Senate
election in Rockland County a few years ago, would give the City $500
million by imposing a small fee on out-of-town workers who use city
services while at work. Even reducing the rebate of the stock
transfer tax from 100% to 90% would provide NYC with $800 million.
The Greens opposed the Governor's proposal to raid the state's
multibillion surplus from federal welfare reform, calling instead for a
hike in welfare benefits; increased funding for job creation; and,
increased access to college, child care, basic education and job
training programs for welfare. Despite an annual surplus of $1.5 billion
from the 1996 federal welfare reform, the Governor and State Legislature
have failed to raise welfare benefits for children and their families
since 1990. Welfare benefits, already inadequate in 1990, have fallen to
below 50% of the federal poverty level. Children are the principal
victims.
The Greens opposed the Governor's effort to make the Tuition Assistance
Program for college partly a loan program, saying it would make it even
more difficult for low-income people to attend college. The Greens said
that the Governor, who is seeking to transfer $345 million for federal
welfare dollars to pay for TAP, should at least support allowing welfare
participants to attend college. The only group of welfare participants
who are able to escape poverty when they move off on welfare are those
who have attended college. The number of welfare participants in college
have dropped in half since welfare reform was enacted, including a drop
of 22,000 in the CUNY system.
The Greens also called for an immediate repeal in the Rockefeller Drug
Laws along with amnesty for nonviolent offenders presently imprisoned.
The Greens would invest the savings in criminal justice costs realized
from a reduction in the inmate population to invest in the public
university and education systems.
"It is an outrage that the Governor wants to spend more money on
prisons than on the State University system. We need to invest in
educating our children, not locking them up. It is also time for the
Governor to recognize that our system of underfunding urban and rural
schools in unconstitutional and counterproductive,"stated Mark
Dunlea, Vice-Chair of the Green Party of New York State, and chair of
the Greens Legislative Committee. The Governor's education funding
proposals fall hundreds of millions of dollars below what is needed to
maintain current services, let alone resolve the problem of underfunding
poorer school districts. The Greens would also overhaul the State's Star
property tax program to ensure that poorer districts got a fair share;
the Star program presently gives most of the tax savings to wealthy
homeowners in affluent suburban communities.
"Economic development funds should not be used by Pataki and his
fundraising chief Charles Gargano to reward campaign contributors. The
state should fulfill its statutory obligations to share state revenues
with local governments, and it should be up to these governments to
democratically decide how to best create jobs in their communities. And
any economic develop funds must have strong contractual requirements to
ensure that living wage jobs are produced or the welfare returned,"
stated Elmer Berstch of the Schenectady County Greens.
The Greens called for the state to save billions of dollars by enacting
a single payer health care system to eliminate the funds wasted on
private health insurance and their accompanying profits and paperwork.
"George Pataki, Joe Bruno and Sheldon Silver agreed behind closed
doors agreed to cut a deal on health care, yet three million New Yorkers
remain without any health insurance coverage. A single payer universal
health care system would save money while allowing us to expand
coverage. The only reason it hasn't already enacted is the power of
special interests who profit from our poor health care system,"
stated Masada Disenhouse of the Downtown Brooklyn Greens.
The Greens support a restoration of funding to nonprofits that were cut
out of last year's state budget and an increase in funding for HIV and
AIDs programs. The Greens oppose the Governor's effort to transfer $100
million out of the Environmental Protection Fund.
The Greens said they supported using the State's purchasing power to
require companies seeking to participate in Medicaid to reduce the cost
of prescription drugs, as Florida and Michigan have done. NYS spent $2.2
billion on prescription drugs in the first three quarters of 2002, an
80% increase from 1998. The Greens estimates this the state could save
half a billion dollars on drug costs.
The Greens are committed to ecology, grassroots democracy, nonviolence
and social and economic justice.
http://www.gpnys.org/
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