How We Can Solve the Budget Crisis in Illinois and Build a Full Employment Economy With Good Jobs for All Who Need Them

a working paper by Rich Whitney, Green Party Candidate for Governor of Illinois

This is a work in progress. A political platform will always be subject to revision based on new information and constructive criticism. This is where my economic and budget platform stands as of 3/11/2010. Greater details on some sections are forthcoming. Critical feedback and suggestions consistent with the Green Party’s Ten Key Values will be welcomed and periodically reviewed to improve this platform.

I do not contend that this platform is perfect. I do contend that it presents a far better alternative than anything offered by the candidates of the two corporate-sponsored parties.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Step 1: Fix the Structural Budget Deficit. Make our tax system more progressive and fair.
  • Eliminate spending that exists only to reward political supporters of favored legislators and that does not serve a legitimate public purpose.
  • Enact a comprehensive reform of our existing tax structure.
  • Impose a financial transactions tax on speculative trading.
  • Create a state bank.
  • Implement a greenhouse gas fee and dividend system, imposing fees on producers of energy and products responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, and paying dividends to consumers, based on income level.
  • Raise additional revenue by ending the socially destructive “war on drugs” and specifically by legalizing and taxing the sale of marijuana.
• Step 2: Modernize our Energy Infrastructure.
  • Create alternatives to the profiteering utilities.
  • Improve energy efficiency of homes and buildings.
  • Promote solar and wind power generation – with production based in Illinois.
  • Develop other creative means of generating energy that do not emit greenhouse gases.
• Step 3: Modernize our transportation infrastructure.
• Step 4: Improve Education and Provide Free Higher Education for All In-State Residents Who Qualify Academically.
• Step 5: Single-Payer Health Care.
• Step 6: Support small businesses – for real.
• Step 7: Other public works.
• Step 8: More, better paying social service jobs.
• Step 9: Raise the minimum wage until it is a genuine living wage.
• Step 10: Make corporations accountable and encourage other forms of business ownership. Use the power of eminent domain to reclaim and re-tool abandoned facilities under community or worker ownership.

Introduction

It is a basic duty and obligation of government to ensure that every person who wants to work, and be a productive member of society, shall have the opportunity to do so. After all, the Preamble to the Illinois Constitution states that our government was formed to “eliminate poverty and inequality; assure . . . social and economic justice” and “provide opportunity for the fullest development of the individual.”

Yet considering the lack of living-wage jobs available today compared to the numbers looking for work, both the Democratic and Republican parties have failed miserably in this basic obligation. Most Democratic and Republican officeholders don’t even acknowledge this obligation. But the Green Party and its candidates take this obligation very seriously. As a party of, by and for the people, it is a top priority for us.

The following measures are the steps that I intend to take to move us toward the goal of creating a full employment economy, in which everyone who wants to work will have the opportunity to do so, and earn a living wage, or better. There is no one magic answer, and it may be the case that we cannot fully attain the goal unless more sweeping changes are adopted at the national or even international level. But we can surely get much closer to the goal than where we are now.

The full text is available here