League of Women Voters Questionnaire

The City of Syracuse continues to rank highest in the nation in its number of residents living in poverty. What needs to be done to reverse this trend? (1000 characters)

Equal Employment Opportunity: Fair shares of city-funded jobs with city departments and contractors for residents and minorities.

Marshall Plan for Syracuse: Apply for a big grant from the $500 million Upstate Revitalization Initiative for jobs in public works and services rebuilding high-poverty neighborhoods and incubating employee-owned businesses in them.

Desegregation: Deconcentrate poverty by desegregating housing and schools by race and class through inclusionary zoning for mixed-income housing development, detracking within the school district, and consolidation with adjacent school districts.

Worker Co-ops: Target economic incentives for employee-owned businesses in low-income neighborhoods so the worker-owners build family wealth.

Apply the Cleveland Evergreen Co-ops Model: Eds and Meds provide capital for worker co-ops in nearby low-income neighborhoods to serve university and hospital markets: industrial laundry for linens, urban farm for food services, solar panels…

What will be your top 3 priorities if elected? (1000 character limit)

Progressive Tax Reform; Anti-Poverty Investments; Increased Civic Engagement.

I want to be the next mayor of Syracuse, not its last mayor. The city is on the brink of insolvency and a state financial control board that may dissolve the city into a metropolitan government on unfavorable terms. The city needs a broader, fairer, sustainable tax base: restored state revenue sharing and a graduated city income tax on residents, commuters, and absentee landlords.

The strategic vision behind anti-poverty investments is that by uplifting poor and working-class people, the problems of crime and the schools will be reduced, which will retain and attract middle-class people and businesses, and help build a sustainable prosperity for all.

To increase voter turnout and civic engagement, I propose proportional representation on the council, ranked-choice instant-runoff voting for mayor, public campaign finance, and neighborhood assemblies for community planning and participatory budgeting.