Dear voter and potential supporter,
I hope I can earn your vote and support. If you are not a DC voter, you can still volunteer and donate to my campaign, The Green Justice Campaign!
Best wishes,
David Schwartzman
At-Large City Council Candidate in the DC Statehood Green Party Primary
Help me confront the crisis of everyday living now faced by a majority of our city's residents.....
After 34 years in the District as a member of the Statehood (Green) Party, nearly 40 years as an environmental scientist teaching on the Howard University faculty (full Professor since 1990) and 50 years working for peace, civil and human rights, I'm not about to make the usual empty promises. I ask that you demand that candidates do more than give lip service about 'affordable housing' and jobs. I offer here specific proposals developed from my long involvement with organizations that fight for you. I invite your input, your support and your vote to make them real!
"You may say I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one..."
There are now over 200,000 Green Party members in the United States. They dream as I do of a world without war, without poverty, with human rights and biodiversity respected. And unlike the Republican and Democratic Parties, the Green Party stands for DC Statehood in its Platform. And of course there are many more still outside the Green Party of the United States, and its local affiliate the DC Statehood Green Party, who share this dream.
Imagine with me the "Other DC that is Possible", a more just community, a better life for all its residents and work with me to make it happen! Lets empower the struggle for DC Statehood! You have the power if you use it, if we use it collectively.
My Priority Agenda upon being sworn in as a new City Councilmember, in January 2011:
We now have an outpost in the Corporate-occupied Wilson Building! My office will serve as an organizing center for your interests.
First, I pledge to donate one-third of my salary to non-profits working for economic, social and environmental justice, “Green Justice”.
DC Jobs for DC Residents: I will push for legislation that puts real teeth (big fines, shutdown violators) into 1st Source Hiring and Living Wage Requirements. Prioritize hiring in Wards with highest unemployment (currently Wards 5, 7 and 8).
Ban the Box: End job and housing discrimination against people with criminal records now, ensuring full civil rights for returning citizens. Fully fund and staff transition programs from jail to employment with living wages.
Take steps to rapidly implement Apprenticeship Programs for Green Jobs in our High Schools & Community.
Implement a real program to end child poverty: Raise TANF to above poverty level. Fully fund adult and early education, job training, child care, substance abuse programs.
Reopen DC Neighborhood Public Schools. Fire Rhee, End Mayoral control of our schools, Rehire unjustly fired teachers and staff. Bring together parents, teachers and the community to insure bottom up, not top down control. Shift funding from bureaucrats to students and teachers. Limit Access of military recruiters, no JROTC in DC Schools.
Fully fund first-time homebuyer assistance, rent subsidies, and the Housing Production Trust Fund. DC law should use DC's Median Income to define affordability, not the Greater DC Metro AMI which is much higher.
Take vigorous steps to end the childhood asthma epidemic by curbing air pollutants, and likewise carbon emissions in Metro DC. How: Expand clean bus service, Reduce Metro fares*, with students, elderly, disabled riding free, paid for with congestion charges on car commuters. Congestion charging must be planned from the community level up to insure economic and social costs do not fall on those unable to bear them.
Clean up the Anacostia River, expand access for bikes and pedestrians in DC neighborhoods and downtown.
Health care for all -- no one in DC should be uninsured. Expand DC Alliance. Build support for single payer healthcare system. *Require opt in, not opt out of HPV shots.
Drug treatment on demand – not incarceration. Addiction is a public health issue, not a crime. *End the drug war*. Lets take local steps that make a difference.
Work for full transparency in our governmental operations. End the corruption of our politics by big money with *public funding for local DC elections.
Where's the money for Tax Relief for* *working people and the elderly and for a more just budget serving you? Here is where we can get it: Make millionaires pay their fair share! With my progressive tax plan a family making $45,000 would pay $1,000 less in DC taxes a year, a modest tax hike for the top 5% income bracket would generate more than $116 million additional revenue a year to better fund essential programs in our budget. *All such additional revenue should be targeted to essential programs that fund truly affordable housing, child care, adult education, and not go into the general fund with the chance of becoming new corporate welfare candy for big developers.
(For my DC Tax & Revenue plan and DC tax burdens, please go to:http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org/testimony/fairtax).
Once the tax structure is made progressive, tax rates for all residents can be lowered once the District government is forced to stop the hemorrhaging of our revenue to big developers and other corporate interests. These giveaways now include about $150 million per year in rent going to private facilities for municipal business instead of using renovated public space (over $1 billion for the last 8 years!) and $50 million for renovating seating for the VIPs at the Verizon Center.)
Public Property for Public use first. Tax exemptions and abatements for the corporate sector must be fully transparent and yield real community benefit with take-back if they don't deliver. Stop taxpayer- funded subsidies for economic development serving no one but the profiteers. No more cronyism in public contracts.
Aggressively press for more federal funding and spend it before it is taken back (for example, $4.6 million in job training)! Make sure full reimbursements are collected (e.g., Medicaid). There are even federal dollars available such as funding for low income residents who need transportation subsidies, but our District government has not applied for them!
Our Mayor and City Council should lead a campaign to get PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes) from the World Bank/IMF, Fannie Mae and other tax-exempt institutions who should contribute hundreds of $millions just like in other cities.
And finally I will work to establish a DC Municipal Bank to leverage our tax revenue and fines into green economic development and affordable housing instead of giving our taxpayers money to Wall Street to invest. The Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the U.S., is the envy of Wall Street, while creating low cost credit for its citizens.
Click here for my VISION STATEMENT: What can we do together in the next four years?
