Public Power

NYSEG has repeatedly shown that it prioritizes its bottom line over the safety of its customers and workers, its profit over providing reliable services. Hours-long outages and irresponsible customer communication are routine experiences for NYSEG customers. Confusing and inept billing programs have resulted in erroneous charges and collection agency threats. Fossil fuels continue to be prioritized, even as such reliance exacerbates the climate crisis. For a company that claims to provide economical and reliable service, address climate change, and respond promptly to customer needs, it is evident that NYSEG is not only falling short of its commitments but also violating customer safety and affordability.

We need clean, green energy owned by the people who use it. Why should billionaires profit off our grid while we suffer from horrible service, shut offs, and pollution? A publicly-owned, democratically-run utility grid would dramatically lower the costs Ithacans pay on energy by cutting out the profit motive, bring us to 100% renewable power, and end violent shut offs. No one should have to struggle to keep the lights and heat on. The Solidarity Slate will fight to bring NYSEG’s grid into the control of the community, either through loan and purchase or eminent domain.

free tcat

Our city was designed by and for people who could afford cars that pollute our communities. For the thousands of people who rely on TCAT buses to get to work, shop for groceries, and get around town, it is evident that TCAT best serves students, leaving locals and many poor people in transportation deserts. Bus fares make getting around incredibly difficult for people who need to spend money more urgently on feeding their families.

We know it is possible to cancel bus fares for Ithacans and vastly improve accessibility of public transport to cut down on emissions–– TCAT was free this past spring and summer. Making this happen would only cost $30 per Tompkins County resident, which could easily be achieved through reallocation of the police budget or greater contribution from Cornell. The Solidarity slate will fight to achieve free fares for TCAT by any means possible.

jobs

With record unemployment levels in our city, the need for good, prevailing wage green jobs has never been greater. We need to rapidly put people back to work in order to return to pre-COVID unemployment levels. Black and brown people in our community have been especially hard hit by racist layoffs, suffer most from pollution based on historical zoning, and will be the hardest hit by climate disasters that leave people in transit deserts stranded. As we create new green jobs to rapidly transition to clean energy, we must prioritize these communities and others who face barriers to employment and underrepresentation in clean energy jobs.

We must develop pipelines to these jobs that intentionally recruit and train formerly incarcerated people, veterans, Indigenous people, people of color, poor people, LGBTQ people, and women. The County’s Workforce Development Board is currently considering developing a Green Jobs Training and Diversity Council dedicated to building out this pipeline. Slate candidates support the creation of such a council, and would dedicate city resources to the development of such a pipeline.

We will also fight to ensure that every developer that receives City tax abatements from the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency (IDA) hire local workers and apprentices to support job creation, pay their workers prevailing wage, and use Project Labor Agreements. Any new building that receives a City building permit should also prioritize workers by incentivizing apprenticeship hire of priority populations, local hire and prevailing wage.

green buildings

Buildings in our city are responsible for about three-quarters of our carbon footprint. Despite promising to adopt a Green Building Policy for new buildings in 2019, and one for existing buildings in 2021, our current City government has failed to enact either policies with efforts three years delayed. That is absolutely unacceptable. We know that this failure is the result of sleepy, apolitical and undemocratic practices of current Common Council members–– building policy drafts are being written entirely by unelected government staffers, not the politicians who we elected.

The need to transition our homes and workplaces to renewable energy has never been greater. We must rapidly enact a green building policy for new buildings that bans fossil fuel infrastructure, ensures occupant health, and raises the bar for developers significantly enough to meet carbon neutrality by 2030– such a policy should also include labor and fair rent rate provisions. Our green building policy for existing buildings must make clean energy retrofits affordable to low income people and employ local people at prevailing rates.

It’s time our city stops profiting off the climate crisis. We will fight to divest City pension funds from fossil fuel corporations, stop all new natural gas construction, and draw down all existing fossil fuel infrastructure in the next decade.