Paul Glover is the Green Party candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. There will be a Welcome Party for Paul Glover at 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 15, at the William Way LGBT Community Center, 1315 Spruce Street in Washington Square West, Philadelphia. Glover will answer your questions and organize support for his candidacy.

Here is a sample of what you may expect. In August, Paul Glover answered 19 questions concerning his political position on issues that will affect the next Governor of PA. The questions were presented by Cumberland Valley Rising in south-central PA.

Paul Glover for Governor of Pennsylvania
www.paulglover.org/governor

News Release
Saturday, September 4, 2018

Contact:
Campaign Manager Brittany Anuszkievwicz, (410) 440-4188, [email protected]

Paul Glover’s Response to Cumberland Valley Rising

As Green Party candidate for Pennsylvania governor, I've answered these questions about ecology, economy, and justice put by Cumberland Valley Rising (CRV).

CVR 1. What steps are needed to maximize voter registration and turnout as well as to ensure the integrity of our elections? How does our government create fair districting and election financing that more effectively realizes the principle of “one person, one vote?”

PAUL GLOVER: Authorize an independent commission to draw state legislative boundaries. Promote online registration and permit same-day registration. Revive “equal time” rules to assure all candidates will be heard by the electorate. Establish Instant Runoff Voting (Ranked Choice Voting) to end the “spoiler” argument against minor parties. Create a website to publish campaign donations in real time, with pie charts and bar graphs, ranked by size of donation and category (corporate, individual, nonprofit, PAC).

CVR 2. How should government address the problems of affordable housing and food insecurity? What is your position on providing adequate training, a living wage and job security for workers of all ages? On the role of labor unions?

PAUL GLOVER: I would establish the Green Labor Administration (GLAD). This detailed plan will create 500,000 green jobs in Pennsylvania without raising taxes. It addresses food, fuel, housing, health care, planning, education, transportation, finance, and sanitation. I’m author of the book “Green Jobs Philly,” founder of the Philadelphia Orchard Project (which has planted 61 orchards in this city so far), founder of a dozen additional organizations for ecology and justice. 

Labor unions need to advocate for the entire working class. They need to push for more rank-and-file shop floor power and ownership, not just more wages. Because industrial unionism has been eclipsed by small shop and temp labor, I’ve been a member of the International Workers of the World, and have drafted plans for a labor union that’s independent of the NLRB. 

CVR 3 & 4. What will you do to protect and expand Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? What would you do to reduce the cost of healthcare in the United States and ensure access for all, and eliminate medical bankruptcies?

PAUL GLOVER: I would reform Pennsylvania Insurance Department regulations to allow regional self-financing medical co-ops. These provide the basis for expanded Medicare and Medicaid which is affordable, democratic, humane. This is how Canada’s single payer system began. I started such a co-op in Ithaca, NY, in 1997. Its members paid $100/year to become covered for 12 categories of common emergency; then we built a free clinic providing holistic and allopathic care.  Am author of the book “Health Democracy” which explains how regional models may become a national plan. Currently establishing PhilaHealthia to do same for state of PA.  Also proposing PennDent, a statewide dental co-operative. I’m author of the book “A Crime Not a Crisis,” about the collusion between Pennsylvania insurance regulators, legislators, and insurers to maintain a profitable virtual monopoly at the expense of resident health. Social Security revenue should never be released to the stock market. I am advocating a Pennsylvania State Bank, to remove tax revenue and pension funds from commercial banks and put them to work for Pennsylvanians.

CVR 5. How would you ensure the Constitutional rights of women to make their own healthcare decisions without government interference? Would you pledge to restore and protect funding for Planned Parenthood, which administers basic healthcare for millions of women?

PAUL GLOVER: Absolutely endorse women’s right to choose and endorse the work of Planned Parenthood. Being pro-life means more than being pro-fetus.

CVR 6. How do you propose to address the crises in the treatment of mental illness and drug addiction?

PAUL GLOVER: Mental illness is built into the structure of our economy and culture as hard as walls, and as loud as the boom and bust of capital. Most fundamental solution includes creating ecological neighborhoods within which everyone has creative work and respect. I’m founder of Ithaca HOURS local currency, which celebrates skills and labor that are not typically respected by the formal economy. I’m founder of the Logan Orchard and Market (LOAM) proposal, which seeks to create such a model ecological neighborhood. Such connection relieves isolation. Community is the best drug. As well, I’m founder of Citizen Planners (1978), a movement which has brought thousands of people into planning neighborhoods that meet their needs. I advocate what was once called Radical Therapy, which solves mental stress by converting personal powerlessness into group power. Defining others as being mentally ill is a major industry, and may itself be a form of mental illness.

CVR 7. How can we reform our criminal justice system to prevent the racial disparities of arrests and prosecutions as well as eliminate mass incarceration? What is your position on for-profit prisons?

PAUL GLOVER: I’ve proposed the Police Integrity Congress, to transfer control over police hiring, firing, and standards to an entity representing neighborhoods most harshly patrolled. Private prisons are themselves a criminal syndicate.

CVR 8. How would you confront the institutionalized racism that keeps people of color disadvantaged?

PAUL GLOVER: Control of land, law, and money decides who gets respect, who lives well, and who goes to jail. My book “How to Take Power” details how to shift this control toward those who most urgently need it. More comprehensive solutions are introduced in my article “Philadelphia’s Poverty Industry”. My first job was as an organizer for a black co-op in Louisiana.

CVR 9. How should the detention and separation of immigrant families be remedied?

PAUL GLOVER: Must cease instantly. I’ve shared the fury of the nation at such barbarism. Those who pushed this policy must be replaced.

CVR 10. What should the relationship between ICE agents and local and state police be? How would you reform ICE and the abuses currently evident?

PAUL GLOVER: Favor abolishing ICE. As governor I would direct state troopers to cease asking for nationality and would end their cooperation with federal agents.

CVR 11. What is your vision of comprehensive immigration reform?

PAUL GLOVER: National boundaries protect rulers more than they protect workers. The best defense against chaotic migration is pushing for ecological economies that enable people to live well in their native lands. For over 100 years the United States has undermined such economies, creating banana republics and puppet empires.

CVR 12. What are your views on climate change? What programs are needed to restore standards for clean water and air? Should states move to institute their own standards when federal agencies fail? How should the racial disparities in environmental conditions be addressed?

PAUL GLOVER: As global warming accelerates, Pennsylvania’s transition must sharpen. Without aggressive energy efficiency there is no national defense, no real community development nor personal success.

Thus, complete rebuilding of our cities and farms during the next 100 years, toward balance with nature, should be Pennsylvania’s foremost definition of progress, and will be the top priority of my administration. Green building and energy efficiency are the essential foundations of a healthy economy. We can gradually cut reliance on fossil fuels by 80%.

Solar cities, schools, and suburbs should receive incentives for passive solar construction and retrofit, attached greenhouses and atria, heat grabbers, sun tubes, etc. Funding will be sparked by regional stock exchanges dedicated to eco-development.

Current dependence on centralized utilities drags us into the past, financially and environmentally. While we focus on efficient retrofits, steam cogeneration should get sharp fuel rate discounts. Geothermal and wind should be welcomed into the smart grid as well, and net metering should welcome these small generators. Mountaintop removal should end. Transport of coal slurry should end.

Further, I would shift the State’s budget from road building to rail and transit. The era of the automobile, whether gasoline or electric, must gracefully fade, as we build for proximity rather than speed. A penny-per-gallon gas tax paves this route.

In like manner, I’d shift the State’s subsidies from oil-soaked agribusiness to instead stimulate regional farms, especially CSAs that are organic and GMO-free. I’d encourage urban greenhousing and permaculture (I’m founder of the Philadelphia Orchard Project). Planting millions of trees in cities will greatly reduce carbon emissions, by cooling urban heat islands and cutting air conditioning loads.

As well, import replacement programs will stimulate regional manufacture of green products, decreasing our dependence on global imports while creating jobs.

Perhaps most challenging, I’d encourage a shift from our consumer culture to a creative culture. Success and the good life might be better defined as preparing a legacy of beautiful cities, rather than mountains of trash.

Many of us want big change, but few of us want to be changed. Therefore proposed policy changes must promise both immediate and long-range benefits. They must be safe. They must be stylish. They must be fun. Those who invest must be celebrated for redirecting investments. Those who love shopping must have green products. Those afraid of sharing must be assured of control.

A Green governor would nominate like-minded experts to the PUC.

I've taught urban studies (Metropolitan Ecology) at Temple University and written the article "Beyond LEED," which proposes stronger LEED standards. I'm author of Ithaca Power, a comprehensive energy survey of that region (1988), which received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Economic expansion which damages the health of humans, animals, plants, soil, water and air is not progress but decay. Real economic development therefore celebrates and rewards the contributions to a healthy economy made by environmentalists and green energy businesses.

During the past 30 years I’ve taken several initiatives to model this change. Green energy is a priority investment in my plans for the Philadelphia Regional & Independent Stock Exchange (PRAISE), which would gather capital of all kinds for regional eco-development. I’ve reported for “Ethical Markets.” I'm a former teacher of Green Jobs at Temple University, and author of the book Deep Green Jobs. I’m former editor of Green Jobs Philly News , a monthly collage of Philadelphia’s green economy. These feature green energy innovations. I’m founder of Ithaca HOURS local currency, a regional business association (500 participating businesses) which has traded millions of dollars value while promoting green enterprise.

Making the explicit connection between health care, earth care, and the economy, I’m founder of the Ithaca Health Alliance and author of the book Health Democracy. Here are excerpts from my 1998 Health Advocacy preamble, which refers to climate change:

FRESH AIR: Eighty percent of our bodies' daily intake, by weight, is air. Thus quality of air anchors health. Health Alliances favor zoning that brings work, play, shopping and school close together so that walking, biking and transit can replace automobiles. We favor energy efficiency, to reduce air pollution.

CLEAN WATER: Our bodies are 90% water, so we're as healthy as the water we drink. Health Alliances thus favor water conservation, xeriscaping, green industry, reduced consumerism, sewerage reform, greater reliance on organic vegetarian diets, all of which reduce waste and contamination.

STABLE SOCIETY: Peace is healthy; war is unhealthy. Peace depends on fair distribution of political power and wealth; population control; respect for cultural, religious and ethnic diversity. Health Alliances will advocate against war and for peace.

HEALTHY PLANET: All the health needs above are based on the vitality of the Earth. Destruction of the ozone layer, forests and species; coupled with climate change, are injuries no doctor can mend.

CVR 13. Should the state require comprehensive sex education for all students?

PAUL GLOVER: Several European countries mandate sex education from an early age. Highly recommend it. Were such legislation put on my desk I would sign.

CVR 14. How would you restore funding for public schools to pre-recession levels without increasing property taxes? How would you address the disparity of funding among school districts within the state to ensure equitable education for all students?

PAUL GLOVER: Smart funding of our schools, without resort to fracking and property tax increase, will include the following:

Cut expense for heating and cooling in half by retrofitting schools for maximum efficiency: super-insulation, super-windows, solar power and solariums. This releases more money for teachers, students and pleasant classrooms. Energy efficiency is my top budget priority.

Enact progressive taxation and close the Delaware Loophole. Pennsylvania is a desirable place to live and do business. We need corporate partners, not corporate siphons.

Reinvest part of pensions in Pennsylvania enterprise, to expand the tax base. I've created plans for regional stock exchanges, such as the Philadelphia Regional & Independent Stock Exchange (PRAISE), http://www.greenjobsphilly.org/static_praise.php.

Cap school district bureaucrat top salaries. It is outrageous when top-level desk jockeys become more dedicated to gigantic paychecks than to children. Reducing their salaries means that only those with real passion will remain.

Tax profits of major non-profit institutions. A shopping mall owned by a hospital, for example, should contribute to public education.

Establish employee co-op health plans. We will dramatically reduce costs of health insurance, for both teachers and taxpayers, by creating a genuinely nonprofit insurance system. I am founder of the Ithaca Health Alliance, a local co-op which covered members for 12 categories of common emergency for $100/year. And I'm author of "Health Democracy," describing this system.

Accept regional bonds and currencies to repay sweat equity and in-kind donations. This expands the money supply and reduces dependence on dollars. I am founder of one such plan, which has transacted millions of dollars equivalent value and made interest-free loans for community benefit.

Issue bonds through a Pennsylvania state bank, starting with 10% of unrestricted state funds. State incentives should be available to universities and school districts that 1) restrain administrative salaries; 2) restrain new construction; 3) super-insulate and cogenerate; 4) invest endowments and pensions in a new Pennsylvania state bank.

Shift budget from prisons to schools. Tracking children into prison is itself the greatest crime. My budget will reverse this. At the same time, I will establish the Green Labor Administration (GLAD) to create 500,000 green collar jobs statewide and encourage curricula which prepare the young to take these responsibilities. I'm author of the book "Green Jobs Philly,"  former publisher of Green Jobs Philly News, and taught Green Jobs at Temple University.

The state budget should Leave No School Behind. All schools should have modern libraries with computers. Head Start should be expanded to enable all children to enjoy pre-K activities.

Raise State proportion of funding toward 50%. This will be especially practicable as the reforms above proceed. No homeowner should lose their home because of school tax burden, so I support tripwires that require the State to take up slack.

CVR 15. Would you be willing to enact strict financial and academic standards for all schools, including private and charter schools, which receive state funding, particularly with respect to special education funding for children with disabilities?

PAUL GLOVER: The first purpose of schooling is to stimulate a love of learning, and an embrace of creativity. Although great emphasis is put on STEM jobs we need to focus more on “stem” jobs that repair the earth, because 65% of adult Pennsylvanians have no college degree. Charter schools presume to be operated more efficiently, so I favor reducing their per capita subsidies by 20%. Special education should be fully subsidized, though students of all capabilities should share classrooms and be taught to help one another.

CVR 16. How can the government best support higher education and reduce student debt? What should the government do to alleviate the existing debt of current borrowers?

PAUL GLOVER: While teaching at two Philadelphia universities I told students that, although they had a legal obligation to repay student loans, they had no moral obligation to repay student loans. That’s because it’s the primary moral obligation of elders to educate the young so that society can progress. I’m enthusiastic about the Rolling Jubilee, which purchased defaulted loans for pennies per dollar, and would create a State fund for this purpose.

CVR 17. How can the independence of our legal and regulatory institutions be protected?

PAUL GLOVER: I’d shut the revolving door between corporations and regulators, as per my book “A Crime Not a Crisis” noted above.

CVR 18. What are your positions on gun safety? What common sense measures to control gun violence do you support?

PAUL GLOVER: Guns are for protecting the home and should stay there. Here are my answers to the National Association for Gun Rights: http://www.paulglover.org/governor.guns.html.

CVR 19. What sorts of support will you offer to the Consumer Protection Agency? How will you protect your constituents from corporate greed and malfeasance?

PAUL GLOVER: I endorse Consumer Protection Agencies — local, state, federal. Best defense against dangerous greed is least dependence on corporations, through creating local and regional economies that bring together people who care about one another. So that we protect one another and quit scrambling for scarce dollars.

For more information about Paul Glover's candidacy please visit http://www.paulglover.org/governor.html and http://facebook.com/glover4governor. To volunteer with the Paul Glover Campaign for Governor of PA, please visit http://www.greenwaveofpa.com/home.

The Green Party is an independent political party that stands in opposition to the two corporate parties. GPPA candidates promote public policy based on the Green Party four pillars: grassroots democracy, nonviolence, ecological wisdom, and social justice/equal opportunity. For further information about GPPA, please visit www.gpofpa.org. Follow GPPA on social media: Facebook, Green Party of Pennsylvania and Twitter, @GreenPartyofPA.

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