Goals

We are always concerned about the economy and making sure that families and individuals have the opportunity and ability to live a prosperous life of their choosing as free from poverty as we can get. How we achieve the goal has been the subject of debate for over 100 years. If this was a simple goal it would have been achieved long before now. It is a complex goal with lots of intersections in areas of education, public safety, environmental stewardship, and justice.

Our state's role in the economy is to provide a foundation for a sustainable economy "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (1987 United Nations Brundtland Commission definition of sustainability). This foundation has to build from the ground up in order to support the individuals, businesses, and communities that will act, in their turn, to form the rest of the system.

The foundation must address the following-

• Environmental Sustainability

  • Ensuring responsible use of natural resources

  • Reducing waste and pollution

  • Conserving the life and biodiversity that makes up our ecosystem

• Social Sustainability

  • Ensuring equity and equality in all of our systems

  • Guaranteeing that people are heard and included in how our society moves forward

  • Recognizing, preserving, and protecting everyone's rights

  • Ensuring that all peoples' basic needs are met

• Economic Sustainability

  • Enabling and empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty

  • Building and strengthening the middle class

  • Ensuring that businesses are supported with necessary infrastructure

  • Encouraging a circular systems approach to doing business in the state

Consistently standing in our way of achieving a truly strong and sustainable economy is a movement that refuses to build the economy from the bottom up, absolutely ensure that the basic needs for life are met for everyone in our state, and ensure that people have the opportunity and ability to provide a prosperous life for themselves. We can overcome that barrier by electing people, like myself, who will actively work for ways that combat poverty and give people the means to lift themselves up.

Investing in education and workforce development - Workforce development is more than providing the technical skills necessary to perform a job. It is also ensuring that a person can feel purpose in their chosen career, feel secure that the career will provide for the life they want to live, and feel that they can adapt if the job or their needs change. It is because of this that we have to invest in education at all levels to empower people of all ages with the knowledge, skills, critical thinking, and creativity necessary to get or create good jobs for themselves.

We have to invest in programs that open doors for everyone, so we invest in public schools for our children, trade schools, and colleges for adults, and we make that accessible to everyone no matter the circumstances of their birth. This is why we have public education and the SUNY and CUNY systems. We can ensure that these systems are working for us and delivering the skills and education necessary for people to provide a good life for themselves.

Investing in infrastructure to eliminate barriers to success and create jobs - By investing in infrastructure we are creating well paying and steady jobs while building a foundation with transportation, public health, energy, and environmental resiliency on which other individuals and firms can grow. Without that infrastructure in place workers can't work, business can't be done, and the leisure activities we enjoy can't happen.

Ensuring that everyone's basic needs are met and affordable- We should recognize that the circumstances of life sometimes cause disruptions that can make a person's life unstable, threaten their ability to provide many things such as housing, food, clothing, transportation, or healthcare. We can reduce poverty, and thereby create stability and reduce the trauma that can have devastating public safety effects, by investing in policies and programs that ensure that basic needs are met.

• A single payer healthcare system, such as the New York Health Act, ensuring that healthcare is accessible no matter the financial situation a person finds themselves in

• A universal child care system can allow families the security of knowing that they can take advantage of job opportunities without endangering their child's well being while also educating them.

• Developing a public transportation system that adapts to the needs of the community, such as the unique transportation needs in rural communities, assures people that they can get to where they need for work, shopping, and entertainment

• Ensuring that New York State has a minimum living wage that is indexed and automatically rises to meet cost of living increases allows people the security of knowing the work they find will provide for their lives and gives hope that they can always do better as our society moves forward.

• Creating an economic development plan that gets capital to small business in the form of startup loans, operational microloans, and grants for businesses that contribute to the community's basic needs (such as farms) fosters innovation and growth for our communities.

• Developing a truly progressive tax system that reduces the burden for lower and middle income families ensures that they have the money in pocket to better provide for themselves, yet still maintains the resources for the infrastructure and programs necessary for success.

This is a time of opportunity where we can create a good, balanced partnership between public and private projects, each attending to their roles to achieve a healthy world that sustains life and a free and prosperous society with a robust middle class. This is a time we can move forward together and see a society that is sustainable for many generations.