Hawkins for Auditor

Strong Action Needed to Clean Up Albany Corruption

Supports Statewide Ban on Fracking for Natural Gas

(Binghamton, NY) Howie Hawkins said today the epidemic of corruption that prevails in the State Capitol won't end until voters demand clean government – with their votes. Sen. Tom Libous is just the latest of nearly 30 state legislators indicted or pushed out of office for unethical behavior over the last decade.

Hawkins would reconvene the Moreland Commission that Cuomo just disbanded and empower it to complete its job. He would give it the funding it needs and the autonomy to let the commissioners hire staff this time without interference from the governor's office or the legislature. He would also establish an independent State Ethics Commission.

Green Party: "Stop Common Core" Just Another Republican Push to Privatize Education

The Green Party today said that the effort by the Republicans to create a "Stop Common Core" ballot line was largely a fraudulent bait and switch effort.

"Rob Astorino is the Jimmy McMillan of education reform. He states the obvious -- Stop Common Core -- but still doesn't make any sense," said Howie Hawkins, the Green candidate for Governor.

"They may stop common core but they will keep looting schools by underfunding public schools and pushing privately-managed charter schools and profligate contracts with testing firms," he explained.

"Stop Common Core needs to Start Getting Real about the need for quality, fully-funded, desegregated public education from pre-k to undergrad," added Brian Jones, the Green Lieutenant Governor candidate and a former NYC teacher. "To paraphrase Shakespeare (unless drama class has already been cut from the budget), "Privatization by Another Name Will Disenfranchise Just as Many." Perhaps they should just rename it 'we don't like teachers or unions'."

Hawkins Calls for Moratorium on Oil Shipment by Rail and No Tar Sands Oil in New York

Until Moratorium, NY Residents Have a Right to Know Details of Bakken and other Oil Shipments

(Syracuse, NY) At a vigil in Syracuse to observe the one year anniversary of the 47 residents killed in Lac Megantic, Canada by a derailment of a "bomb train," Howie Hawkins said that New York State residents have a right to know about the details of similar shipments here in New York.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, will hold a news conference to discuss his campaign on Wednesday, July 9^th at 11:00 a.m. on the lawn the Surrogate County Court House at 92 Court St. in Binghamton.

Howie Hawkins, the Green candidate for Governor, will campaign in the Buffalo area on Sunday.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, and Matt Funiciello, the Green candidate for the 21st district congressional seat, said today that they oppose the massive development in the Adirondacks at Tupper Lake that recently won an Appellate Court decision and has the support of Governor Cuomo.

The proposed Adirondack Club & Resort is the largest development ever approved in the Adirondack Park. Hawkins described it as the worst decision ever by the Adirondack Park Agency. Local conservationists oppose the 6,400-acre project as “sprawl on steroids.”

"People in the Adirondacks need sustainable jobs, not more playgrounds for the rich," said Hawkins.

On July 4, politicians declare their love for the American Revolution and democracy, while doing their best to oppose it both at home and abroad.

Because economic power translates into political power, the extreme concentration of wealth in the top 1% undermines democracy. Both main parties have colluded over the last four decades to transfer wealth to their super-rich donors, while ensuring that no meaningful reforms take place to our electoral system. The U.S. leads the industrial nations in income inequality because our electoral system is the least democratic.

The sacred texts of Jews, Christians, and Muslims all call for a Jubilee every 50 years to redistribute wealth and forgive debts, not just for moral reasons, but to make the economy function again. America needs a Jubilee.

 "The escalating number of criminal indictments hasn't put a damper on political corruption at the State Capitol. Pocketing tax dollars for personal gain is the main reason why many legislators go to Albany. Cleaning up corruption has to start with a clean sweep in November. Voters need to turn incumbents out this November," said Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor.

 "We also need real ethics reforms and full public campaign financing, not the weak changes promoted by Cuomo and the WFP leadership. The legalized bribery of private campaign financing is thoroughly corrupting. The money made by politicians on fees for consulting companies doing business with the state and the pay-to-play system of private campaign financing have to be ended with a full time legislature and full public campaign financing. We need public servants, not privately purchased politicians," Hawkins added.

Howie Hawkins hailed the New York Court of Appeals decision announced today that upholds the right of municipal governments to ban fracking within their jurisdictions.

"The Green Party strongly supports the right of local communities to control development in their communities. Local people are usually the best to determine what is best for the public health and safety of local residents," said Hawkins.

Hawkins said that the best way to ban fracking in New York would be to vote for the Green Party in November.

Hawkins Ready to Join Workers on Strike Picket Line

Howie Hawkins, the Teamster who is running for NY Governor for the Green Party, said he was ready to join the picket line if the MTA fails to agree to a new contract with the various worker unions at the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). The contract is set to expire on July 20.

In supporting the wage and benefit proposals advanced by the unions, Hawkins noted that their proposals were accepted by two emergency federal boards convened by President Obama under the Railroad Labor Act to review the impasse. The boards found that the pay raises sought were a reasonable compromise between the MTA's proposals and average wages on consumer rail lines. The Boards found that employees’ salaries, adjusted for inflation, have not increased since 1991.