Title: Endorsement of Carbon Tax Initiative

Sponsor: Dru Tarr

Contact info: [email protected] or 978-325-1427

Platform Committee and possibly Communications Committee

Summary: Committee for a Green Economy has been formed to propagate a ballot initiative to enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax for the state of Massachusetts. This initiative would enact a tax at first point-of-sale on carbon that would gradually increase to a set level over a number of years. Revenues from this tax would be earmarked for research and development, infrastructure improvement, and to offset state income and sales tax reductions.

Carbon taxes are widely supported by economists and economic modeling as a simple, bureaucracy-light way of stemming the emission of a crucial greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. This is an existing, independent movement that party support and party members could have an immediate effect. I urge the State Committee to endorse this initiative and encourage party members to aid in education and passage of this critical first step in stemming climate change.

Financial impact: None immediate. Minimal to moderate if State Committee decides to prioritize this issue as actionable.

Implementation: Press release required. Locals review the initiative and see if they are willing to make material support of this a primary effort in their activities.

Title: A Bold Action Program for the GRP in 2014

 
 
 “The Green Party is not the alternative. It is the imperative.” – Rosa Clemente, Green Party Candidate for Vice-President, 2008
 
Sponsors: Mike Heichman, Suffolk County Rep.         (manager), Brian Cady, Suffolk County Rep, and Frank Jackson, GRP Secretary
 
 
 
 Contact Info of Manager: [email protected]         617-265-8143         
 
 
 
 Committee(s) Vetting:         CDLC and Membership
 
 
 Background: There is so much that is happening in our planet, country and Commonwealth that is calling out to us for our attention! Our party is capable of bold action. Years ago, for 3 consecutive years. we, took the lead in organizing a statewide march to abolish poverty. Our members have run together for statewide office in 2002, 2006, and 2010. Last year, one of our members, Jill Stein, won the Green Party’s nomination and ran a spirited campaign for President.
 
 Recently, we went through a strategic process. There was strong support to improve the operations of our state party. However, there were very few proposals and all had weak support for plans that called on our state party to take bold action.
 
 Why should our members continue to be a part of our party? Why should new people join? If we want our party to grow, we must come up with a bold and realistic plan of action.
 
 Rationale: Generally in Massachusetts, on odd years there are municipal elections and in even years, like 2014, there are state legislative, congressional and statewide races. At this stage in our party’s development, the most important are municipal and State House of Representative (about 40,000 residents/district) contests.
 
 
 The Green-Rainbow Party is strong in patches, while our organization in most of the state is minimal.  In 2014, we can take advantage of our patches of strength by running in selected State Rep. races, which are the low-hanging fruit with which we can build strength. Electoral races, which are much larger, like state senate districts and statewide races provide little opportunities for victory or getting a respectable percentage of the vote. However, as has happened in the past, these larger races do have the potential of reaching a much larger percentage of the public and have recruited new members.
 
 Proposal:
 
 At the July StateCom Meeting, we will call on our membership at our annual convention in November to make important decisions about the political work of our state party for 2014. Specifically, ...
 
 1. The major electoral focus for our state party since 2010 has been to encourage and support our members to run for elected office, at State House of Representatives and Local levels. The annual convention will be asked to re-confirm this as a major priority for our state party in 2014 and 2015. The implementation of this project will continue to be the top priority of the CDLC.
 
 2. The annual convention will be asked to approve a proposal to establish an Exploratory Committee to recruit a diverse slate of candidates for the 2014 statewide elections. The Committee will attempt to recruit members of our party to run together as a slate for the offices of US Senate, Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General, Auditor, Secretary of the Commonwealth and Treasurer. (Note: We will need 10,000 valid signatures-signed by any registered voter-to get our entire slate on the ballot.) A committee will be established at the convention, which will report to the CDLC, StateCom and Adcom. This Committee will deliver a report to the January 2014 State Comm.
 
 Each potential candidate will be told that the major priority of the state party is to encourage and support our members to run for the State House of Representatives. At this time, we have no idea how many of our members will be interested in joining the slate and no idea which offices they will be most interested in running. We believe that the best strategy for now is to be open.
 
 3. The January 2014 State Comm. will be authorized to call a Special Nominating Convention in early March, 2014. (Note: By this time, we will have a much better idea of how many of our members are interested in running for both the State House of Representatives and for statewide office.)
 
 4. The annual convention will decide to take on at least one (and not more than three) major statewide issues campaign in 2014. Each campaign must demonstrate strong support from the convention and there must be sufficient volunteers to establish an organizing committee for each issue that we vote to make a statewide priority.
 
 Budget Impact: Unclear
 
 Implementation:
 
 1. The Convention Planning Committee will integrate these decisions into the call for the 2014 Convention. Members of the StateCom, other organs of our state party and our local chapters will be called on to help organize a big turnout for this year’s annual convention. Having important things to decide will give our members important reasons to join us.
 
 2. CDLC will continue to make the races for the State House of Representatives in 2014 and municipal elections in 2015 its top priority.
 
 3. An Exploration Committee will be established at the convention to recruit a diverse slate of candidates for the 2014 statewide elections. This Committee will report to the CDLC, StateCom and Adcom.
 
 4. An organizing committee will be established at the convention for each issue deemed worthy of a major effort by our state party.

 
 5. Local Chapters will be asked to support all of the above campaigns.
 
 6. To the extent that it will make sense for their campaigns, we will ask all 2014 GRP candidates to support the issue priorities of the state party.