​Good Governance

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The purpose of government is to act as an agent and servant of its people; it has the responsibility to use its legitimate powers and functions to protect the lives, rights, and wellbeing of its people, to promote the general welfare, establish justice and equality under the law, and foster an environment that allows for people to pursue their potential in a free society. 

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In a free society, people have the right to come together through the democratic process to establish laws to protect their lives, rights, and vital wellbeing, and to elect public servants who will work to serve their will. Those who are elected to serve have an ethical duty to act in the interest of the public. 

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Unfortunately, far too many elected officials in the state have failed to live by these principles. Officials who have not only neglected to protect the lives and wellbeing of New Yorkers, but have also supported policies that have actively harmed the people of this state. Who have allowed corruption and mismanagement to undermine the ability of the state government to effectively serve the public. Our state government must be reformed to put it back on the right track. 

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Addressing Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs

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Alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs are serious social and public health problems and should be addressed as such. Alcohol alone kills over 8,000 New Yorkers a year and costs our state over 16 billion dollars a year in social, medical, and economic damages. These problems have been made worse by pro-alcohol and pro-drug politicians pushing policies that favor industries that profit off harming and exploiting people, at the expense of the public. 

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Our state government should recognize alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs as the social and public health problems that they are. We should establish a comprehensive approach to addressing the harm of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. One which includes expanded support for education and prevention programs (which include up to date information on the harms of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and the benefits of total abstinence), expanding access and support for addiction treatment, mental healthcare, and cessation programs, increased restrictions on the sale of alcohol, tobacco, and other harmful products, and working to progressively reduce and phase out the commercial presence of the alcohol, tobacco, and other drug industries.

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We should end all state support for the alcohol industry. No more using state agencies and taxpayer money to promote the alcohol industry, and no more special tax breaks for the alcohol industry. Instead, the taxes on the alcohol industry should be increased to cover the vast public costs caused by the harms of alcohol. The state government spends far more money dealing with those problems than it gets from the alcohol industry in taxes, and most of the costs get passed off through higher taxes on regular New Yorkers and other businesses. The Addiction Prevention and Recovery Act should be passed to help fund addiction treatment and prevention programs. The State Liquor Authority and other relevant agencies should be reformed with a focus on enforcing strong regulations and working to reduce the impact of alcohol on public health

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Our state should continue its progress in addressing the problem of tobacco. We should continue to increase restrictions on tobacco sales, including ending the sale of menthol tobacco products, and expand the presence of smoke-free spaces. 

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Several years ago, the state legislature made the mistake of legalizing the commercial sale of recreational marijuana. This regressive policy decision has given rise to yet another industry that profits off selling a harmful, brain-damaging narcotic, at the expense of public health and exploiting vulnerable communities. Our state should correct this mistake by working towards ending the commercial sale of recreational marijuana and adopting sensible policies to address it as a public health problem.

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Our state should continue its work to address the opioid crisis and illicit drugs of all types. Through comprehensive policies and strong enforcement against the traffic of illicit drugs, we can work to further reduce overdose deaths, help people struggling with addiction, and build healthier communities. 

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Through ending state support for the alcohol industry and investing in comprehensive approaches, we can work to reduce the harm of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, and create a healthier, safer, and more prosperous New York.

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Public Health

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​More broadly, our state should embrace policies to protect and promote public health. That includes stronger regulations against the sale of harmful products, increased public information efforts, cleaning up environmental contaminants, replacing lead pipes in water systems, and improving access and affordability of healthcare.  

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Ethics Reform and Anti-Corruption

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​Our elected officials should be ethical, responsible, and act to the best of their abilities to fulfill their roles as public servants. Our elected officials should be held accountable for their actions. Over the past decade, our state government has seen numerous corruption scandals, which have included some of the highest-ranking figures in our state government. 

 

Our state needs to enact stronger ethics laws for public officials and stronger anti-corruption laws. We should strengthen the state's ethics commission, to better enable it to investigate ethics violations and corruption in state government and hold those who engaged in misconduct to account.   

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Advancing Democracy

The ability of the people to vote for their preferred candidate and the ability for citizens to run for public office are central to the healthy functioning of a democratic republic. Yet forces within the two major parties have conspired to engage in policies of electoral suppression, aimed at blocking political competition and impeding the ability of voters to vote for the candidates of their choice. This has been done through mechanisms including restrictive ballot laws and gerrymandering.

 

This has been made even worse in New York state in the last several years. Governor Cuomo pushed through a set of anti-democratic changes to state ballot access laws tripling the number of signatures required for independent candidates and alternative parties to get on ballot for statewide office through independent nominating petitions (from 15,000 to 45,000) and changing the requirement for parties to gain statewide ballot from getting 50,000 votes for governor every four years, to getting 130,000 votes or 2% of the vote (whichever is more) for governor and president every two years. As a result, four parties lost their statewide ballot access in the state. In 2022, we had only the two major party candidates for governor on the ballot for the first time in several decades. In 2024, New York was the only state to have no third-party candidates for president on the ballot, and in 2024, roughly one-third of state legislative races had only one candidate on the ballot. We have seen continued efforts by state politicians to further gerrymander our congressional and legislative maps, to insulate politicians and their reelection chances from shifts in public opinion. 

 

We should end the anti-democratic electoral suppression policies affecting our state. We should repeal the restrictive ballot access law changes pushed through by Cuomo and pass new ballot access laws that give alternative parties and independents a fair opportunity to get on the ballot. We should stop requiring state legislative candidates with independent nominating petitions to gather three times as many signatures as a major party candidate for the same office. We strengthen the independence of the state redistricting commission and ban partisan gerrymandering. And more broadly, we should advance electoral reforms which give citizens a greater ability to express their will and vote for the candidates of their choice.​

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Advancing Justice 

 

Our laws and law enforcement system should be based in the principles of justice; in protecting the lives, rights, and vital wellbeing of people from abuses by private actors, having accountability for and due consequences for actions, and seeking, where possible, to reform misdoers that have been held to account. 

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Our state should enact stronger laws against rape, sexual assault, human trafficking, child abuse, and domestic violence. The statute of limitations for rape and the sexual abuse of children should be abolished. 

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Our state should hold strong laws against the trafficking and sale of illicit drugs. We should pass stronger laws against drunk and drugged driving. 

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We should work to improve the quality and effectiveness of our state's law enforcement. We should work to promote good law enforcement practices, provide effective resources and coordination for state and local law enforcement, foster community relations, and ensure accountability to protect against those who would seek to abuse their positions. Good laws, combined with good and effective law enforcement, can serve to advance justice and better protect the public. 

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Equality

 

​All people are created equal, with universal personhood and a common humanity. This applies to all people regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, class, disability, or other such distinction. Our state's laws should protect the rights of New Yorkers against discrimination and unjust mistreatment, promote equal opportunity, and uphold the principle of equality in society under the law.

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There are areas where our state can make progress in advancing equality; including stronger policies to protect the rights and expand opportunities for disabled New Yorkers, stronger policies against racial, gender, and religious discrimination, and expanding access to education and job training opportunities for all New Yorkers. 

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Education

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​All students should have access to a good quality education, which supports their needs, fosters their personal and intellectual development, cultivates knowledge and skills, and promotes good citizenship. Towards these ends, we should work to improve the quality of our state’s education system. We should reform state aid to schools to ensure that all school districts are properly funded. We should improve support for the needs of all students. We should advance education policies to ensure the strong teaching of core subjects, promote critical thinking and information literacy, and promote good citizenship.

We should expand the state’s TAP program and enact other policies to ensure that New Yorkers can have access to a tuition-free college or vocational education. 

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State Finance

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​The state's finance and taxation system should be reformed to make it more secure and better suited to the needs of New Yorkers. The state government should take on a greater responsibility for funding its own budget and reducing the amount of underfunded mandates it places on local governments, so that the state’s property tax burden may be reduced and local governments may be placed in a better situation.

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Economic Development

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We should move the state towards a better economic direction. We should reform the state’s economic development programs to root out corruption and mismanagement. Economic development efforts should be responsible, sustainable, and designed in a holistic manner that takes into account the implications that they will have on the wellbeing of communities. Economic development efforts should promote the growth of honest and productive businesses, expand opportunities for New Yorkers, help communities to provide quality public services to residents, develop infrastructure, and protect the health and environment of communities across the state.

Practices that give unfair advantages to the politically connected or that promote businesses that cause greater damage to the rest of the economy and society (such as the alcohol industry), need to be abandoned. By promoting things that provide a net benefit and working to reduce social problems, we can build a basis for greater prosperity.

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Infrastructure

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Infrastructure plays a key role in connecting the state and supporting its economy. We should work to revitalize and improve the state’s infrastructure, including its important buildings, roads, railways, bridges, subways, water and air transportation, water systems, electrical systems, and digital infrastructure.

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Environment 

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It is important for us to be good stewards of the earth and for our state to have a sustainable relationship with its natural environment. Our environment plays an important role in the health and prosperity in communities throughout our state. As such, it is important to have sound policies that protect important parts of our environment, advance sustainable business practices, and advance sustainable energy, while balancing the economic needs of our society. The growth of our state's wind and solar industries provides opportunities for increasing renewable energy, while also expanding economic opportunities and jobs in communities throughout the state.  

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Affordability

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People throughout the state are facing challenges of affordability, as the costs of many products and aspects of life have risen. Much of this has to do with factors on a national and international level, but there are various areas of state policy where actions could be taken to help with affordability. Many of the aforementioned policy proposals (such as sound economic development efforts, ending state support for the alcohol industry, policies to reduce the general and economic harms of alcohol and other drugs, improving college affordability, improving infrastructure, and reforms to state finance) can act to reduce various financial burdens and improve opportunities for New Yorkers. Additionally, there are various policy areas, such as improved support for food banks, where we can help to provide a hand up to New Yorkers seeking to deal with the challenges of affordability. ​​​​​​​​​​​​