The Republican candidate for Governor of Illinois, Judy Baar Topinka, is on the attack. So is the incumbent candidate, Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich. They and their backers want you to believe that they are each taking the battle for a better Illinois seriously. They aren’t.
Ms. Topinka wants to give the advantage of power to her morally and intellectually challenged Republican allies. Gov. Blagojevich wants to maintain the advantage that his self-serving Democratic buddies have. Neither offers any ambitious ideas to improve the quality of life for those of us who live and work in Illinois. Instead they will bicker with each other ad nauseam, while denying Green Party candidate, Rich Whitney, the opportunity to speak.
There is a statewide slate of Green Party candidates in Illinois. Some in the media have recognized this and are providing coverage. Others have decided to follow the example set by the Democratic and Republican parties and avoid the complexity of participatory democracy.
Progressive taxation: Illinois relies on property taxes to fund public schools. Schools in districts with higher property taxes have more money to spend on education. This cheats those living in poorer districts. Rich Whitney supports a progressive tax system that will ease the financial burden on lower- and middle-income working people. His plan includes property tax abatements of 20-25 percent per school district.
Health care: Health care is a right, not a commodity. Our current health care system is financially beneficial to health insurance companies and large pharmaceutical companies. Rich Whitney believes a single-payer, government-financed health care system is the solution to patchwork programs that don’t solve the problems that most Illinoisans face-living without health insurance; paying higher and higher premiums and deductibles; and realizing that the quality of coverage itself is declining.
Clean energy: As with the health care industry, the large energy companies have profit as their central focus. The health of people and the environment are also-rans. Rich Whitney calls for the development of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energy production, and will introduce a “New Deal” program to achieve this. He also calls for clean and efficient transportation alternatives like high-speed rail. All of this will benefit our economy by creating good-paying jobs and decreasing health problems that are created by our current dirty energy production.
Healthy economy: There can be no healthy economy when the wealthy are the only ones who benefit. In our new “Gilded Age,” the pay ratio of an American CEO to an American worker is 421 to 1. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services places the poverty level for a family of three at $16,600 or less per year. The federal minimum wage of $5.15/hour (stagnant since 1997) provides someone who works 40 hour per week, 52 weeks per year, an annual income of $10,712. Illinois has a statewide minimum wage of $6.50/hour. The same worker in Illinois would earn $13,520.00. What did Henry Ford say about paying his employees?
According to Kate Maehr, executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository (GCFD), of 39 percent of households receiving food from the GCFD, there is at least one employed adult. The GCFD serves approximately 165,000 children annually. This represents 33 percent of the people seeking relief through the GCFD.
Rich Whitney is committed to the goal of full employment at wages that will allow working people to support themselves and their families. Whitney wants living-wage laws, support for small businesses and farmers, and measures favoring employee-owned businesses that stay in our communities.
The war against the people of Iraq: Rich Whitney participated in the founding convention of the Illinois Coalition for Peace and Justice in Champaign/Urbana last April. He was also at the recent Peace Fair in Scoville Park that was put together by the Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice. As governor, Rich Whitney will refuse the exploitation of the Illinois National Guard by our federal government in their pre-emptive war.
The choice has seldom been more concrete: platitudes for the status quo or a clean government that is of, by and for the people. Rich Whitney refuses all corporate campaign money. He will ban campaign contributions from state contractors, their owners and officers.
I am so happy to have this choice in the election.