Charlie Howe
Photo by Terry Hickey
Issues
A Letter from Charlie Howe
Dear Voters of the 115th District:
Since coming home from Vietnam in 1970, I've sadly watched as the fortunes of both this great nation and our state have gone into decline. I struggled, just as the present generation of both young and older people struggles, simply to find work and make a living. Scandals, inflation, fewer benefits and lower wages, deregulated markets favoring the well-to-do and big corporations have eaten away at the American Dream.
Today what do we see?
- Decent paying jobs leaving Illinois
- Soaring gas and oil prices made worse by unregulated speculation
- Mounting food prices along with contaminated and bio-engineered foods
- Unjustified electric and gas bill increases with more on the way
- Declining access to affordable healthcare for most small businesses and workers
- Affordable high quality education gone by the wayside
- Dysfunctional government in Springfield that refuses to fund infrastructure projects, jobs and state employee pensions
What is driving all this? I see it caused primarily by money from corporations and rich private interests that buys and pays for unfair access to and influence of Democratic and Republican legislators.
The result? Power has been taken away from the people and the common good disregarded.
What must we do?
- Vote Green Party. Vote for me, Charlie Howe, as your State Representative of the 115th District. The Green Party is an independent political party dedicated to the needs of the people and respect for the environment. The Green Party and I refuse to take corporate money.
- Create good-paying "stay-put" jobs that won't run away to foreign lands. How? Start by rebuilding Illinois's infrastructure--waterways, bridges, roads, public buildings and schools. Support small businesses with grants, loans and tax breaks.
- Establish a "single-payer" healthcare system here in Illinois by enacting into law House Bill 311. Right now nearly two million Illinoisans have no health insurance at all and increasing numbers of the middle class have inadequate healthcare. Universal healthcare works everywhere else in the industrialized world. We need healthcare for everybody in Illinois now!
- Make organic agriculture doable. House Bill 1300 funded a study of organic agriculture which shows that growing crops organically and closer to home without antibiotics and GMOs results in cheaper and better food. Organic agriculture not controlled by large corporations will end the overuse of pesticides and chemical fertilizers that foul and endanger our groundwater and waterways. Clean water will mean a safer environment.
- Enact House Bill 750 that swaps excessive property taxes, that many Illinoisans pay, for slightly higher personal income taxes. This would mean that lower- and middle-class people would have more money in their pockets. In addition, funding for rural and downstate schools would increase by thousands of dollars per pupil.
- Push for the "Show Us" referendum which puts a 21-day hold on any bill in the Illinois Legislature so the press and public can scrutinize it before it becomes law. Not doing this is what allowed Ameren and Consolidated Edison to jack up utility rates to unreasonable levels causing undue hardship for many Illinois customers.
- Become more energy efficient. Expand the use of renewable energy sources from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric technologies. We also need to switch to more fuel-efficient rail transport for both passengers and goods. Lastly we must find alternatives for over-dependence on private automobiles and the use of fossil fuels which cause runaway climate change.
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