Comments SEIU Questionnaire by D. Schwartzman
Ecodevelop
I will work to create apprenticeship programs focusing on urban agriculture, energy conservation and solar energy technologies in our public schools, partnering with non-profits, businesses and unions. Then our District's Green Collar Job Initiative will fulfill its promise, to provide 21st century employment for District workers, especially youth, while improving the quality of life for all residents. Further, the challenge of global warming should be addressed in the District with a systematic approach starting now.
A priority: the District government should immediately establish a Municipal/Community Task Force to generate a comprehensive plan for Greening the District, by retrofitting photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, green roofs on existing infrastructure, promoting water harvesting, reducing air and water pollution.
Group Homes for People with Mental Retardation
The District government's record with respect to this issue represents a shocking pattern of human rights abuse which should not be tolerated. The Council should empower a community task force drawing from those with real experience which should be charged with conducting a thorough and timely investigation and recommending action to restore the full human rights of people with mental retardation. At the same time, all those concerned with this issue should be organized, with SEIU taking the lead, to demonstrate their outrage and demand immediate action, starting with the implementation of the Steve Sellows Act. I pledge to fully support such an initiative if elected to the Council.
Child Care
Unfortunately the Council passed the Mayor's proposed FY 2009 budget request without significantly increasing local funding. The Mayor's proposed budget claimed that the same number of children would be provided service as in 2007, but with a $1 milion drop in local funding, while the proposed gross funding also declined from a drop in federal input.
This budget is shortchanging our children, especially in time of recession and rising cost of living. The final budget for FY 2009 doesn't even keep up with inflation as we plunge into a recession. And a recession combined with rising fuel and food prices is a depression for low income residents and indeed much of the working class majority of DC. In particular, the small proposed increase in TANF benefits would bring them up to 29% of the federal poverty level, a steady decline from 1990 of 45%, and adding on food stamps, to no more than 60% of the poverty level (DC Fiscal Policy Institute, FY 2009 Budget Toolkit). Given this steady impoverishment of the poor, it is no surprise that the childhood poverty level in DC is now 30%.
TANF Funding
DC's TANF benefits are among the least adequate in the nation (DCFPI, March 14, 2006 study). Poverty is the major cause of DC's social problems, especially poor performance in school (DCFPI, November 2, 2006 study). At the same time income inequality in DC has grown to record levels, the highest in the nation, while life expectancy is the lowest. Income inequality is a major driver of bad health (for full documentation click here).
We cannot continue to tolerate the virtual indifference of our elected government to this shocking violation of human rights of our residents. For starters, the TANF benefit should be brought up to above the federal poverty levels, and the DC minimum wage to a living wage for all who work in the District. Job training and education should be focused more on 21st Century sustainable green collar jobs to improve the quality of life of all DC residents.
Taxes
Not only is a tax cut imperative for the majority but so is a tax hike on the top 5% of District's income bracket, who average over $200K a year, to generate badly needed revenue in our budget to increase funding of anti-poverty programs, child care, job training and of course public education. The Maryland legislature recently passed a tax increase for their millionaires, we should do likewise, especially since the top 1% of DC's families now average $3 million a year and have a lower DC tax rate than the bottom 99%, even compared to families living in poverty (latest ITEP study).
The top 5% had a taxable income of $6.7 billion in 2005 (the most recent data from the IRS) and the top 1% about $2 billion. A modest hike in DC millionaire's taxes will generate $ hundreds of millions in revenue, MD has raised their taxes, why can't DC? Obama says he will repeal of Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy, why can't our DC Democrats in charge do the same here?
Immigration
I support sanctuary status in the District of Columbia for undocumented immigrants. The wave of immigration is largely a result of trade policies such as NAFTA, which have favored U.S corporations at the expense of both domestic and foreign workers, as well as a U.S. foreign policy that has supported oligarchies and death squad governments in Central America. Unity of all workers is the only effective response to corporate attack on the living standards of working people in the Metro DC area.
I fully support voting rights for non-citizen residents in the District. The Equitable Voting Rights Act is legislation that provides permanent taxpaying District residents the right to vote in all local elections. It would allow our over 45,000 residents of DC who are not U.S. citizens to become active in local politics.
Healthcare
We should complete the process of getting health coverage guaranteed for all District residents We call on the DC City Council to proceed with extensive community consultation and testimony to implement a single-payer health coverage for all DC residents (e.g., MD Legislature Universal Health Care HB 441 and HB 1510 are models for this effort).
According to a newly released study, one in five District residents did not a have a regular doctor or clinic despite being insured, with access and quality of care being the main reasons (Nikita Stewart, $90 Million Urged to Expand Health Care. Rand Report Calls for Focus on Residents East of the Anacostia. Washington Post, June 27, 2008, B04). The report recommended spending $90 million from tobacco settlement funds to expand health care facilities, mainly east of the Anacostia River. This would be a welcome step to address the shocking fact that the District has the lowest life expectancy in the nation, compared to the 50 states and virtually every other community. And the main driver of bad health is the District's huge income gap between rich and poor (for documentation please click here).
Therefore, a comprehensive District poverty reduction program is long overdue. Such a program will require changing our regressive tax structure to a progressive one that is much better able to fund the essential programs that are currently underfunded.
Living Wage for Workers
I will introduce legislation that guarantees a living wage for all District workers and similarly legislation that raises sick/personal leave day pay and benefits to the original coverage proposed by Jobs with Justice before the final bill was passed by the Council.
~SEIU Questionnaire by David Schwartzman
