Platform

Platform Preamble

Green Key Values

1. Democracy
1. Political Reform
2. Political Participation
3. Community
2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity
1. Education
2. Health Care
3. Economic Justice / Social Safety Net
4. Tax Justice / Fairness
5. Management-Labor Relations
6. Criminal Justice
7. Civil and Equal Rights
8. Free Speech
9. Native Americans
10. Immigration / Emigration
11. Housing
3. Environmental Sustainability
1. Energy Policy
2. Nuclear Issues
3. Waste Management
4. Fossil Fuels
5. Renewable Energy
6. Transportation Policy
7. Clean Air / Greenhouse Effect / Ozone Depletion
8. Land Use
9. Water
10. Agriculture
11. Biological Diversity
12. Population
4. Economic Sustainability
1. Eco-Nomics
2. Re-asserting Local Citizen Control over Corporations
3. Livable Income
4. Community Involvement
5. Small Business and Job Creation
6. Rural Development
7. Banking for People
8. Insurance Reform

Platform Preamble

As the new century dawns, we look back with somber reflection at how we have been as a people and as a nation. Realizing our actions will be judged by future generations, we ask how with foresight and wisdom, we can renew the best of our past, calling forth a spirit of change and participation that speaks for a free and democratic society.

We submit a bold vision of our future, a platform on which we stand:

• The Green Platform is an evolving document, a living work-in-progress that expresses our commitment to creating meaningful and enduring change in the political process. Our Party’s first priority is to value-based politics, in contrast to a system extolling exploitation, consumption, and non-sustainable competition.
• An ethic of Key Values leading to a Politics of Action.
• A hopeful, challenging plan for a prospering, sustainable economy.

What we are proposing is a vision of our common good that goes beyond special interests and the business of politics. What we are proposing is an independent politics, a democratic vision that empowers and reaches beyond background and political loyalty to bring together our combined strengths as a people.

We, the Green Party of Utah, see our political and economic progress, and our individual lives, within the context of an evolving, challenging world. As in nature, where adaptation and diversity provide key strategies of survival, a successful political strategy is one that is diverse, adaptable to changing needs, and strong and resilient in its core values:

• Democracy, practiced most effectively at the grassroots level and in local communities.
• Social justice and equal opportunity, emphasizing personal and social responsibility, accountability, and non-violence.
• Environmental and economic sustainability, balancing the interests of market- and value-driven business, of the community and land, of living and future generations.

Looking to the future with hope and optimism, we believe we can truly change history - that together we can make a real difference in the quality of our lives and environment. Our common destiny brings us together across our nation and around the globe. It is for us to choose how we will be remembered. It is for us to choose the future we are creating today.

Green Key Values

1. Grassroots Democracy

Every human being deserves say in the decisions that affect their lives so as not to be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political, social, economic, cultural, and work place organizations, including unions, in our effort to compound the force of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in decision-making at all levels of their lives.

2. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity

All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and classism, sexism and heterosexism, ageism and ableism, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

3. Ecological Wisdom

Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society that utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture that replenishes the soil, move to an energy efficient economy, and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.

4. Non-Violence

It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society’s current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments.

We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.

5. Decentralization

Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political, and economic institutions away from a system that is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.

6. Community-Based Economics and Economic Justice

We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs and provide a decent standard of living for all people while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A successful economic system will offer meaningful work with dignity, while paying a living wage, which reflects the real value of a person’s work.

Local communities must look to economic development that assures protection of the environment and workers’ rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and enhancement of our quality of life. We support independently owned and operated companies that are socially responsible, as well as co-operatives and public enterprises that distribute resources and control to more people through democratic participation.

7. Feminism and Gender Equity

We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.

8. Respect for Diversity

We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious, and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines. We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.

9. Personal and Global Responsibility

We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.

10. Future Focus and Sustainability

Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or reusing all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations that will inherit the results of our actions.

11. Quality of Life

Our overall goal is not merely to survive, but to share lives that are truly worth living. We believe the quality of our individual lives is enriched by the quality of all of our lives. We encourage everyone to see the dignity and intrinsic worth in all of life, and to take the time to understand and appreciate themselves, their community, and the magnificent beauty of this world.

I. Democracy

Democracy must empower all citizens to:

• Obtain timely, accurate and complete information from their government;
• Communicate such information and their judgments to one another through modern technology;
• Band together in civic associations in pursuit of a prosperous, just, and free society.

The separation of ownership of major societal assets from their control permits the concentration of power over such assets in the hands of the few who control rather than in the hands of the many who own. The owners of the public lands, pension funds, savings accounts, and the public airwaves are the American people, who have essentially little or no control over their pooled assets or their commonwealth. A growing and grave imbalance between the often-converging power of Big Business, Big Government and the citizens of this country has seriously damaged our democracy. Corporations have perfected socializing their losses while they capitalize on their profits. It’s time to end corporate welfare and the legal fiction that a corporation is a person entitled to the same rights under the Constitution as a natural person. The power of civic action is an antidote to abuse. As we look at the dismantling of democracy by the corporatization of society, we need to rekindle the democratic flame. As voter citizens, taxpayers, workers, consumers and shareholders, we need to exercise our rights and, as Jefferson urged, counteract the excesses of the monied interests.

A. Political Reform

The Green Party of Utah proposes a comprehensive political reform agenda calling for real reform, accountability, and responsiveness in government. Political debate, public policy, and legislation should be judged on its merits, not on the quid pro quo of political barter and money. We recognize individual empowerment, full citizen participation, and proportional representation as the foundation of an effective and pluralistic democracy. We believe in multi-party democracy (for partisan elections) as the best way to guarantee majority rule, since more people will have representation at the table where policy is enacted.

1. We propose comprehensive campaign finance reform, including caps on spending and contributions, at the national and state level, and/or full public financing of elections to remove undue influence in political campaigns.
2. We will work to ban or greatly limit political action committees and restrict soft money contributions.
3. We support significant lobbying regulation, strict rules that disclose the extent of political lobbying via gifts and contributions. Broad-based reforms of government operations, with congressional reorganization and ethics laws, must be instituted.
4. We demand choices in our political system. This can be accomplished by proportional representation voting systems such as:
• Choice Voting (which is candidate-based)
• Mixed Member Voting (which combines with district representation); and/or
• Party List (which is party based), and semi-proportional voting systems such as:
• Limited Voting and
• Cumulative Voting. All are used throughout the free world and by U.S. businesses and community and non-profit groups to increase democratic representation. We call on local governments to lead the way toward more electoral choice and broader representation.
5. We believe that a simple majority is necessary for an electoral mandate. Accordingly, we call for the use of instant runoff voting in chief executive races (mayor, governor, president, etc.) where voters can rank their favorite candidates (1,2,3, etc.) to guarantee that the winner has majority support and that voters aren’t relegated to choosing between the lesser of two evils.
6. The Electoral College is an 18th century anachronism. We call for a constitutional amendment abolishing the Electoral College and providing for the direct election of the president by Instant Runoff Voting. Until that time, we call for a proportional allocation of delegates in state primaries.
7. At every level of government, we support Sunshine Laws that open up the political system to access by ordinary citizens.

B. Political Participation

We support citizen involvement at all levels of the decision-making process and hold that DIRECT ACTION can be an effective tool where peaceful democratic activism is appropriate. We support the right to non-violent direct action that supports Green values. Using our voice to help others find their voice, a Green Party of Utah should spring from many sources: state and local Green Party of Utah electoral efforts, individual efforts, political involvement and direction at every level. As Greens, we look toward forming bioregional confederations to coordinate regional issues based on natural and ecosystem boundaries instead of traditional political ones. We encourage building alternative, grassroots institutions that support participatory and direct democracy at the local level. Greens advocate direct democracy as a response to local needs and issues, where all concerned citizens can discuss and decide questions that immediately affect their lives, such as land use, parks, schools and community services. We would decentralize many state functions to the county and city level and seek expanded roles for neighborhood boards and associations. We call for more flexibility by allowing states and jurisdictions local decision-making while at the same time maintaining and enhancing federal guarantees in the areas of civil rights protections, environmental safeguards, and social safety net entitlements.

1. We endorse and advocate citizen rights to initiative, referendum and recall. We believe that these tools of democracy should not be for sale to the wealthy who pay for signatures to buy their way onto the ballot. Therefore we call for a certain percentage of signatures gathered to come from volunteer collectors. Requiring all political parties to gather signatures every election cycle that total a very small percentage of the local population, is an idea that should be given consideration; a requirement to gather a certain amount of $5 donations in order to acquire public campaign finance funding. These reforms would keep all of the parties tied to the people and prove that they have grassroots support.
2. We call for citizen control of redistricting processes and moving the backroom apportionment process into the public light. Minority representation must be protected and secured in order to protect minority rights.
3. We will act to broaden voter participation and ballot access, urging universal voter registration and an Election Day holiday.
4. We believe that a binding “none of the above” option on the ballot should be a permanent part of every state ballot; binding meaning that for single seat positions, if “none of the above” gets the most votes another election must be held with entirely new candidates.
5. We believe that providing free television and mail under reasonable conditions for every qualified statewide, congressional, presidential candidate and party can move the political process toward increased participation.
6. We support statehood for the District of Columbia. The residents of D.C. must have the same rights as all other U.S. citizens to govern themselves and to be represented in both houses of Congress.
7. We call for the implementation of Children’s Parliaments, whereby representatives elected by students discuss, debate, and make proposals to their city councils and school boards.

C. Community

Community is the basic unit of green politics because it is personal, value-oriented and small enough for each member to have an impact. We look to community involvement as a foundation for public policy. Social diversity is the wellspring of community life, where old and young, rich and poor, people of all races and beliefs can interact individually and learn to care for each other, to understand and cooperate. We emphasize a return to local, face-to-face relationships that humans can understand, cope with, and care about. We call for an end to fear-based isolation from our neighbors and support initiatives that seek to restore the bonds within our entire community. We support the leading-edge work of non-profit public interest groups, and those individuals breaking out of careerism to pursue non-traditional careers in public service. Similarly, we support alternative, community-based systems treating neither the artwork nor the artist as a commodity. Freedom of artistic expression is a fundamental right and is a key element in empowering communities and moving us toward sustainability and respect for diversity. Artists can create in ways that foster healthy, non-alienating relationships between people and their daily environments, communities, and the Earth. This can include both artists whose themes advocate compassion, nurturance, or cooperation; and artists whose creations unmask the often-obscure connections between various forms of violence, domination, and oppression, or effectively criticize aspects of the very community that supports their artistic activity. The arts can only perform their social friction if they are completely free from outside control.

1. We call for the end of the race to the bottom, where states and cities compete with each other to become the lowest bidder for prospective corporate capital investments. For this reason welfare, tax breaks, and subsidies for corporations must be abolished by law. However, we are open to the possibility of subsidies for locally owned and operated community spirited businesses that pay living wages.
2. We call for expanded public transportation, and convenient playgrounds and parks for all sections of cities and small towns, and funding to encourage diverse neighborhoods.
3. We call for social policies to focus on protecting families. The young ­ citizens of tomorrow ­ are increasingly at risk. A children’s agenda should be put in place to focus attention and concerted action on the future that is in our children. Programs must be encouraged to ensure that children, the most vulnerable members of society, will receive basic nutritional, educational and medical necessities.
4. We support successful prenatal programs and Head Start as well as neighborhood childcare cooperatives and after school programs.
5. It is our realization that a living family wage is vital to the social health of communities.
6. We support a rich milieu of art, culture, and significant programs such as the Utah Arts Council and Utah Humanities Council. Furthermore, the Green Party of Utah supports:
1. Eliminating all laws that seek to restrict or censor artistic expression, including withholding of government funds for political or moral content.
2. Increased funding for the arts appropriate to their essential social role at all levels of government: Local, and State.
3. Community-funded programs employing local artists to enrich their communities through public art programs. These could include, but would not be limited to, public performances, exhibitions, murals on public buildings, design or re-design of parks and public areas, storytelling and poetry reading, and publication of local writers.
4. The establishment of non-profit public forums for local artists to display their talents and creations. Research, public dialogue, and trial experiments to develop alternative systems for the valuation and exchange of artworks and for the financial support of artists (e.g., community subscriber support groups, artwork rental busts, cooperative support systems among artists, legal or financial incentives to donate to the arts or to donate artworks to public museums).
5. Responsible choices of non-toxic, renewable, or recyclable materials and choosing funding sources not connected with social injustice or environmental destruction.
6. Education programs in the community that will energize the creativity of every community member from the youngest to the oldest, including neglected groups such as teenagers, senior citizens, prisoners, immigrants, and drug addicts. These programs would provide materials and access to interested, qualified arts educators to every member of the community who demonstrates an interest. We also encourage local artists and the community to contribute time, experience, and resources to these efforts.

II. Social Justice and Equal Opportunity

A. Education

1. State policy on education should act principally to ensure equal opportunity to a quality education. The Green Party of Utah maintains that access to quality education for all Americans is the difference that will lead to a strong and diverse community.
2. Greens support educational diversity. We hold no dogma absolute, and we view learning as a lifelong process to which all people have an equal right.
3. Within public education, we believe in broad choices. Curricula should focus on skills: basic skills, languages, arts and sciences, critical thinking skills, citizenship skills and the history of social movements.
4. We advocate creative and cooperative education at every age level, and the inclusion of cultural diversity in all curricula. We encourage hands-on approaches that encourage a multitude of individual learning styles. We recognize the viable alternative of home-based education.
5. Parental responsibility should be encouraged by finding ways to help support parents in their efforts to help support their children as more families confront economic conditions demanding a greater deal of time be spent away from home. Parents should be as involved as possible in their children’s education; values do start with parents.
6. Educational funding formulas at the state level need to be adjusted as needed to avoid gross inequalities between districts and schools. Educational grants should provide necessary balance to ensure equal educational access for minority, deprived, special needs and exceptional children. In higher education, federal college scholarship aid should be increased and aimed at excluding no qualified student.
7. Our teachers find they are underpaid, overworked and rarely supplied with the resources necessary to do the work most are sincerely trying to do to reach their students. It is time to stop disinvesting in education, and start putting education at the top of our social and economic agenda. Classroom teachers at the elementary and high school levels should be given professional status, and salaries comparable to related professions requiring advanced education, training and responsibility.
8. Principals are also essential components in effective educational institutions. We encourage state Departments of Education and school boards to deliver more programmatic support and decision-making to the true grassroots level—i.e., the classroom teacher and school principal.
9. We call for the teaching of non-violent conflict resolution at all levels of education.
10. We support a host of innovative and critical educational efforts, such as bilingual education, continuing education, job retraining, mentoring, and apprenticeship programs.
11. We are deeply concerned about the intervention in our schools of corporations that promote a culture of consumption and waste. Schools should not expose children to commercial advertising. Schools must safeguard students’ privacy rights and not make available private student information upon corporate (or government) request.
12. Within higher education, we oppose military and corporate control over the priorities and topics of academic research.
13. We support tuition-free post secondary (collegiate and vocational) public education.
14. Greens view learning as a lifelong and life-affirming process to which all people should have access. We cannot state more forcefully our belief that in learning, and openness to learning, we find the foundation of our Platform.
15. We believe that comprehensive sex education, including information about preventing conception and the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, should be included in the curriculum of all public schools.

B. Health Care

1. Fundamental reform of our nation’s health care system is necessary to provide affordable, quality and accessible health care for all Americans. Currently, we are the only industrialized country without a national health care system. Unfortunately, we have a private insurance system that insures only the healthiest people, systematically denying coverage to individuals with pre-existing conditions and routinely terminating coverage to those who become ill.
2. The Green Party of Utah considers health care a human right, and therefore supports a single-payer national insurance program for the United States. This program would be publicly financed at the national and local levels, administered locally, and privately and equitably delivered. Consumers would be given full choice of health care provider.
3. It would cover all standard medical procedures, treatment, diagnosis, etc. as well as drug treatment, dental care, medication, chronic and terminal illness, and abortion. The program must include equal coverage for treatment of mental illness. All Americans must be covered under this plan, regardless of employment, income, housing, age, or prior medical condition.
4. The Green Party of Utah believes, based on comparison with other nations that have enacted similar programs that such a program would be more economical and would save money in many areas. In order to enact this program, we must dismantle the current managed care system. The current system’s high costs and widely recognized failures demand that bold, not incremental, steps be taken. We recognize that community control needs to be reasserted over our health care system. We oppose the selling off of non-profit community hospitals for private gain and strongly support increasing the number of non-profit and community hospitals in this country. Our medical priorities must shift from making profits to providing quality universal health care. Local communities must be allowed to fully participate in boards overseeing their health care facilities and providers.
5. Alongside the many Americans calling for action that makes health care a right, not a privilege, the Green Party of Utah states with a clear voice its strong support for universal health care.
6. We call for passage of legislation at the national and state level that guarantees comprehensive benefits for all Americans. A single-insurer system funded by the federal government and administered at the state and local levels remains viable and is an essential barometer of our national health and well-being.
7. We support maintaining private medical providers, including doctors, hospitals, and clinics.
8. As we support cost savings by small business, we note it is estimated that businesses will save significantly compared to their current premiums—an estimated $900 billion—under a proposed single-payer National Health Trust Fund plan.
9. We endorse national health insurance and demand that Congress again propose and act to support the practical and moral imperative of Universal Health Care. Major features of this health care legislation should include:
1. Universal access without concern for work status or health history;
2. Freedom of health care choice so patients can choose their own clinics, doctors or other health care professionals;
3. Substantial cost savings through annual, global budgets, national fee schedules, and streamlined administration that acts to eliminate the waste of the current system;
4. Comprehensive benefits, without insurance premiums, deductibles or co-payments, including hospital and physician care, prescription drugs, dental and vision care, reproductive and preventative care, and defined mental health benefits;
5. A focus on rural health services;
6. And continued support of medical research into the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness of medical care.
10. Medicare provides health care for nearly 40 million Americans over the age of 65. Medicare: Part A is financed by the Medicare Trust Fund, which is replenished by payroll taxes. But as the major portion of the Fund’s financing moves from these dedicated payroll taxes and premiums to general funds, the Fund’s trustees predict insolvency looms, putting Medicare is at risk. In order to correct this, we would vigorously pursue savings and cuts from abundant waste and fraud, eliminate costly, unnecessary services that benefit providers more than patients, and rein in pharmaceutical industry rip-offs.
11. MEDICAID, which pays for basic medical assistance for the disabled, blind, pregnant women, and children in families who have no insurance, also must be protected and put on a firm financial footing.
12. The prices of all kinds of medication must be publicly supervised, with federal controls, and be set with respect to the needs of patients and consumers, instead of demands for commercial profit.
13. Successful reform of our health care system must start with wellness education; that is, preventive health care. It is each of our responsibilities to tend to our own health through education, diet, nutrition and exercise.
14. The Surgeon General has stated that a large percentage of illness is diet related; therefore improving the quality of our nation’s food supply and our personal eating habits will go a long way toward improving our health care system—by reducing the need for care.
15. We support a wide-range of health care services, not just traditional medicine that too often emphasizes a medical arms race, relying upon high-tech intervention and surgical techniques.
16. We support the teaching of holistic health approaches and, as appropriate, the use of complementary and alternative therapies such as herbal medicines, homeopathy, acupuncture, and other healing approaches.
17. We oppose the arrest, harassment or prosecution of anyone involved in any aspect of the production, cultivation, transportation, distribution or consumption of medicinal marijuana. We also oppose the harassment, prosecution or revocation of license of any health-care provider who gives a recommendation or prescription for medicinal marijuana.
18. As a matter of appropriate professional responsibility, we support informed consent laws to educate consumers to potential health impacts.
19. Primary care, through a renewed attention to family medicine as opposed to increased medical specialization, is appropriate and necessary.
20. Special attention must be given to women’s health issues, including reproductive rights and family planning.
21. We believe the right of a woman to control her own body is inalienable. It is essential that the option of a safe, legal abortion remains available.
22. Medical research must be increased, and alternative therapies actively sought, to combat breast cancer.
23. We call for adequate social and health services being made available to those who have special needs: the mentally ill, the handicapped, those who are terminally ill.
24. We call for wider implementation of hospice care.
25. We believe an all out campaign must be waged against AIDS and HIV, and we will press for the implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission on AIDS. We call for prevention awareness and access to condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS. We condemn HIV-related discrimination; would make drug treatment and other programs available for all addicts who seek help; would expand clinical trials for treatments and vaccines; and speed up the FDA drug approval process.
26. In matters of international trade, the United States must respect the measures other nations take to ensure public health, and must not use medication, medical equipment, and other medical necessities—and threats of withholding them—as leverage for political reasons or as extortion for the sake of commercial profit. We oppose any embargo or economic sanction that would cause the suffering of innocent civilians.

C. Economic Justice / Social Safety Net

1. We believe our community priorities must first protect the young and helpless. We believe local decision-making is important, but we realize, as we learned during the civil rights era, that strict federal standards must guide state actions in providing basic protections. As the richest nation in history, we should not condemn millions of children to a life of poverty, while corporate welfare is increased to historic highs.
2. The ones who suffer most from economic injustice are children—those who will inherit the social and environmental problems of the 20th century, and who will carry the responsibility of sustaining our society into the next millennium. Ensuring that children and their caregivers have access to and adequate, secure standard of living should form the cornerstone of our economic priorities. We condemn the passage of the 1996 Welfare Act by congress and favor the creation of a stronger social safety net based on these principles.
3. We believe that all people have a right to food, housing, medical care, a living wage job, education, and support in times of hardship. We favor movement towards a guarantee of a living wage for every employed resident in Utah, we acknowledge that such a goal can only be accomplished by work in conjunction with other states to insure the businesses do not flee to the cheapest regional wage pools.
4. We believe that work performed outside the monetary system has inherent social and economic value, and is essential to a healthy, sustainable economy and peaceful communities. Such work includes, but is not limited to: child and elder care; homemaking; voluntary community service; continuing education; participating in government; and the arts. For the short term, the development of local currencies—such as the Utica Hour—will help ease these discrepancies.
5. We call for restoration of a federally funded entitlement program to support children, families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled, with no time limit on benefits.
6. The minimum wage must be modified to guarantee all Americans a Living Wage that is specific to their own counties; such a wage should be calculated yearly to meet the cost of living (housing, food prices, and the cost of transportation) in each specific area.
7. We support public funding for the development of living wage jobs in community and environmental service, for example, environmental clean-up, recycling, sustainable agriculture and food production, sustainable forest management, repair and maintenance of public facilities, neighborhood-based public safety, aids in schools, libraries and childcare centers, and construction and renovation of energy-efficient housing. We oppose enterprise zone give always which benefit corporations more than inner city communities.
8. We must take aggressive steps to restore a fair distribution of income. We support tax incentives for businesses that apply fair employee wage distributions standards, movement towards guaranteed profit sharing percentages for everyone employed in a firm (distribution would be based on the number of hours contributed yearly). We favor income tax policies that restrict the accumulation of excessive individual wealth.
9. Forcing welfare recipients to accept jobs that pay wages below a livable income (a living wage) drives wages down and exploits workers for private profit at public expense. We reject workfare as a form a slave labor.
10. Local community spirited and sustainable businesses receiving public subsidies must provide livable wage jobs, observe basic workers rights, and agree to affirmative action policies of such distribution not just on our present needs, but on the seventh generation to come.

D. Tax Justice / Fairness

1. Middle-class and poor people are paying an ever-greater proportion of federal taxes, and too often local and state taxes are unfair and regressive. The tax code is a labyrinth of deductions, loopholes, exemptions and write-offs, the result of insider- and industry-lobbying that has damaged our economy as it has served the interests of big business and financial institutions.
2. We call for system-wide tax reform that acts to simplify the tax system. The high price of corporate welfare corrupts the political process by encouraging the exchange of political favors for campaign donations. Corporate tax breaks are ultimately paid for by higher taxes on the middle and lower income classes; they distort the rules of the marketplace and seldom serve a larger public purpose.
3. Subsidies, export incentives, tax loopholes and tax shelters that benefit large corporations now amount to hundreds of billions of dollars each year and must be abolished. We call for a tax policy that moves to eliminate loopholes and other exemptions that favor powerful interests over tax justice. Small business, in particular, should not be penalized by a tax system that benefits those who can work the legislative tax committees for breaks and subsidies. We support substantive and wide-ranging reform of the tax system that helps create jobs, economic efficiencies and innovation within the small business community.
4. Smaller businesses are America’s great strength. Greens believe government should have a tax policy that encourages small- and socially responsible business. See #7 & #9 of Economic Justice for suggested subsidy requirements.
5. We call on new approaches to taxation, such as environmental degradation taxes as a partial substitute for income taxes. Taxing industrial pollution is an idea long overdue. Environmental taxes of this type, and true-cost pricing, will aid in transforming major industries from being non-sustainable in their use of natural resources to being sustainable in character.
6. We believe that we must take a closer look at the costs and benefits of consumption and value-added tax approaches.
7. We support the development of a simplified tax code; so simple that it would fit on a two pages, however this should not be used for the purposes of an unfair flat tax. We believe a central goal of tax policy should be transparency—that is, a system that is simple, understandable, and resistant to the machinations of special interests.
8. We would raise corporate taxes. The corporate share of taxes has fallen from 33% in the 1940s to 15% today, while the individual share has risen from 44% to 73%, according to the Alliance for Democracy.
9. Greens support progressivity in taxation as a matter of principle, believing that those who benefit most from the system have a responsibility to return their fair share. The wealthy benefit the most from the system therefore they should return the most for its maintenance.
10. The Green Party of Utah opposes the privatization of Social Security. The Social Security trust fund, contrary to claims being made by Republican and Democrat candidates, is not about to go broke and does not need to be fixed by Wall Street.
11. Greens support the restructuring of the social security system so the funds paid out are based on need rather than estimated input. This would solve the problem for which privatization claims to solve—many seniors find their social security checks insufficient as a livable income. It also addresses the problem of many wealthy seniors with huge savings receiving quite unnecessary SS checks.
12. Social Security taxes should not be progressively reformed from their current regressive state. Presently, the greater one’s income is, the lower the percentage they pay in SS taxes, this must be entirely reversed. The lower one¹s income is, the lower percentage they should pay in SS taxes, etc.

E. Management-Labor Relations

1. The concepts of economic and workplace democracy must be expanded because the decisions a company makes affects its employees, its consumers, and the surrounding communities. The principle: “What affects all should be decided by all,” should be our guide in production, consumption and in the work place. In order to protect the legitimate interests of these various constituencies, as well as the natural environment, people in each of these groups must be empowered to participate in economic decision-making.
2. We call for the repeal of Taft-Hartley, the Federal law passed in 1947 intended to limit the power of trade unions. Taft-Hartley gave the states great latitude to write laws hostile to worker’s rights. For example, under Taft-Hartley, states have created so called Right to Work laws. These laws force unions to provide nonunion workers, working in facilities where the union and its dues paying, supportive members have won a contract, the same legal representation and grievance process, the same wages and benefits, as those enjoyed by union members. In other words, so called Right to Work laws are really laws protecting a non-union worker’s ability to freeload on the backs of workers who support and defend gains won at work by, with, and through the union. Taft-Hartley also gives employers the right to replace striking workers with permanent replacement workers. Only in the United States, of all industrial democracies, is it legal to fire and permanently replace striking workers.
3. Workers rights to free speech, free association, to withhold their labor according to their will, to engage in concerted action through strikes, sympathy strikes, boycotts and secondary boycotts, sit ins and sit downs, to refuse to work in unsafe, unhealthful, or demeaning conditions, to engage in collective bargaining and to organize unions, must be protected and enhanced.
4. While we support a fair minimum wage, which, adjusted for inflation, is still well below the purchasing power it had throughout the 1960s and 1970s. We will work to establish a living wage, which will enable a single head of household to raise a family of four to at least 185% of the Federal poverty level.
5. We endorse legislation to address workplace safety and the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Administration (UOSHA) reform; UOSHA must have the power to police and to severely penalize work place safety and health violations. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) must be reformed and expanded to cover all workers including farm workers, contingent employees of all kinds, public employees etc.
6. The National Labor Relations Board must be fully funded. No one should have to wait longer than three months to get a hearing before the Board. And the Board must have the power the impose injunctions and treble damages against employers engaged in unfair labor practices.
7. The Green Party of Utah encourages the development of legislation that would require that companies and corporations found to be repeat violators of labor, health, or safety, laws or regulations be placed in government receivership until their house is in order.

F. Criminal Justice

A plan to revitalize our economy for the working class must be a central element of any overall plan to reduce crime. Fear of violent crime is growing and it is our belief that the breaking of the bonds with community, the economic and social root causes of crime, must be addressed. The way politicians today propose putting more firepower on the streets is proving to be an ineffective, costly, and detrimental way of dealing with crime. We disagree with punishment mandated under punitive sentencing laws that fill the jails, prisons, and penitentiaries with non-violent offenders. Practical education with a real promise of a future for our young people is needed if we are to expect long term success in this struggle, especially against street crime and hard drug trafficking. We believe that the prevention of crime is the most effective use of our time and resources. Also, while toughening penalties for violent crime, it is inappropriate to have a de facto policy of leniency to white-collar crime. We support the Brady Bill and thoughtful, carefully considered gun control and we fundamentally disagree with the death penalty.

1. Adequate legal representation must be provided for the poor and under privileged.
2. The privatizing of prisons must not be allowed to continue.
3. Young men and women must have access to work that pays a family a living wage.
4. We will initiate social programs that are alternatives to gangs, such as enhanced youth recreational facilities.
5. We recommend that the monies spent on prosecuting and maintaining non-violent perpetrators of victimless crimes should go toward child education, job training, job creation incentives, and providing adequate social services.
6. At the same time, we must develop law enforcement approaches that are firm and directly address violent crime, street crime, and trafficking in hard drugs.
7. We believe corporate crime legislation should be enacted and enforced. We support efforts that target corporate, governmental, and defense industry illegality through sentencing and fines.
8. We recommend establishing effective, independent civilian review of complaints of police misconduct. Findings should be made public at town meetings and patterns should be scanned for. Police should be trained in sensitivity training to handle victims and the community they work in.
9. We endorse guaranteed prison education, GED and college courses, as well as job skill training and dispute resolution.
10. Innovative approaches to rehabilitation, drug counseling and treatment, and transitioning non-violent criminals back into their communities should be actively pursued.
11. Prisoners should have absolute freedom to practice whatever religion they choose and have access to the tools they need to practice that religion.

G. Civil and Equal Rights

As Greens, we uphold the key values of respect for diversity and feminism. We recognize that the development of the United States has been marked by conflict over question of race. Just as we acknowledge that our Nation was formed only after Native Americans were first displaced, we also acknowledge that the institution of slavery had its base in the ideology and practice of white supremacy, which we condemn. We support efforts to overcome the aftereffects of over 200 years of discrimination, and hence, affirmative action. We uphold the right of the descendants of African slaves to self-determination, as we do for all indigenous peoples. The Green Party disagrees with punitive discrimination in any form, and thus condemns the practice of law enforcement agencies that are guilty of racial profiling, harassing individuals, or using unwarranted violence against people for no other reason than race. We feel that English only legislation is exclusionary, racist, and unnecessary. The choice to abort or not to abort a pregnancy should be made privately by the woman, her family, and all other private factors of it. We support the Equal Rights Amendment. We must enshrine in law the basic principal that women have the same rights and are equal to men. We recognize that there is a long tradition of marketplace exploitation where sellers of goods overcharge or cheat women simply because they are women which is a practice that must stop. Attention should be drawn to laws that are already on the books, like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and we urge women to exert a take-charge attitude about consuming practices and educate their daughters about discriminatory market practices. Consumers have the right to adequate enforcement of the federal and state consumer protection laws. We support whistle blower rights laws.

1. We feel that people of color have legitimate claims to reparations in the form of monetary compensation for these centuries of discrimination.
2. We support the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people to have housing, jobs, a legal marriage, the benefits that go along with married status, child custody and adoption, and equality in all other areas of life with all other people.
3. We affirm the right to worship or not worship as each one chooses and the repeal of a public law #9728Q passed in 1982, which states that the Bible is the word of God and urges a return to traditional Christian values. We urge the legal recognition of all denominations wedding ceremonies. Furthermore, we stress non-discrimination in the IRS granting of tax-exempt status against traditionally “unpopular” religions.
4. We call for an effective monitoring of police agencies to eliminate police brutality and racial profiling.
5. We support effective enforcement of the voting rights act, including language access to voting.
6. We call for a state language policy that would encourage all citizens to be fluent in at least two languages.
7. We strongly support the vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws; the aggressive prosecution of hate crimes, and the strengthening of legal services for the poor. We feel that hate crimes legislation needs to include the categories of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
8. The Green Party of Utah sees the need for the full enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act to enable all people with disabilities to achieve independence and function at the highest possible level.
9. Women’s choices whether or not to carry their pregnancies to term shall not be interfered with by the government. However, society should work toward preventing the necessity for abortion.
10. Sexual harassment complaints should be dealt with through the hierarchy of speaking frankly to the violator, then supervisor, then employer, and on to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) and the police if necessary. Both the EEOC and the police should actively investigate and prosecute sexual harassment complaints without making the victim feel labeled or persecuted.
11. We must ensure women receive equal pay for equal work.
12. We support the creation of consumer advocacy agencies to protect the interest of consumers against the corporate lobbyists who have argued against the rights of consumers before regulatory agencies. We would require that legal monopolies and regulated industries set up state wide consumer action groups to act on behalf of and advocate for consumer interests.
13. We call for reforms to better inform consumers about the products they are buying; and where and how they were made. We endorse truth in advertising, and we want the restoration of the right of consumers to file class action lawsuits against manufacturers of unsafe products. We also want the elimination of secrecy agreements that act to prevent lawsuits by not revealing damaging information.
14. Consumer legislation should be enacted to outlaw the use of animals in cosmetics and household product testing, tobacco, and in weapons development or other military programs.

H. Free Speech

As we look to the foundation of our freedoms, it should be remembered that the constitution of the United States is not only the supreme law of the land, but is also the original source of all other laws. In Article I, the constitution spells out the legislative powers that are vested in Congress which ultimately sets forth the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people, rights and freedoms that cannot be denied or abridged by Congress or by any other branch or level of government. An informed electorate is critical to good government The first amendment is extensive and prohibits any law that would abridge the freedom of speech, or of the press, most clearly in reference to political matters. Our legal right to criticize government is essential to the effective working of democracy. We recognize that access to information has profound consequences to our democracy, and we have concerns regarding the concentration of information in the hands of fewer and fewer corporations. The privatization of the broadcast airwaves, one of most important taxpayer assets, has caused serious deformations of our politics and culture.

1. We support efforts to increase the transparency of our government, and endorse the enforcement of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as a way of guaranteeing access to government decision-making.
2. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must promulgate telecommunications policies that ensure the First Amendment rights of viewers and listeners. New and existing technologies must provide outlets for scientific and cultural expression and enhance the electoral process. The affordable access and universal access provisions of the telecommunications act of 1996 should be interpreted by the FCC for what they are: a clear mandate for the telecommunications industry to make advanced communications systems affordable and equitably available to all American schools and libraries.
3. The Green Party of Utah supports community radio, particularly those rulemaking petitions before the FCC that allow for a new service of small, locally owned, FM stations.
4. The concentration of power that has characterized the telecommunications industry must by limited. A wide span of programming and information, genuine citizen access, diversity of views, respect for local community interests, news, public affairs, and quality children’s programming are public interest criteria that must be met. The FCC should closely monitor applications for license renewals to control representative programming.
5. We oppose censorship in the arts, press, and media, including the World Wide Web and Internet. We encourage individual and social responsibility by artists, creative media, writers, and all citizens.
6. Utah Greens will attempt to broaden the scope of what the generally conservative media covers.
7. We support all people’s right to voice their opinion, no matter how controversial.
8. We discourage the police, media, housing, employers or any other institution from discriminating against people with alternate world views.

I. Native Americans

Native American culture is worthy of protection and special interests. We feel a special affinity for community and the Earth that many Native peoples have at their roots. We recognize both the sovereignty of Native American tribal Governments and the Government’s trust obligation to Native American people. We recognize that Native American land and treaty rights often stand at the front line against government and multinational corporate attempts to harvest energy, mineral, timber, fish, and game resources, polluting water, air, and land in the service of the military, economic expansion, and the consumption of natural resources.

1. The federal government must renew its obligation to deal in good faith with Native Americans by honoring its treaty obligations, adequately funding programs for the betterment of tribal governments and their people, affirming the religious rights of Native Americans in ceremonies (American Indian Religious Freedom Act), and providing funds for innovative economic development initiatives, education, and public health programs.
2. The federal government must display its recognition of sovereignty for tribal governments through respect for land, water, and mineral rights within the borders of reservations and traditional lands. We support legal, political, and grassroots efforts by and on behalf of Native Americans to protect their traditions, rights, livelihoods, and sacred spaces, regardless of the effect it has on corporate profit or agendas.
3. The Green Party of Utah will work to establish trust with Utah’s tribes so that they may be willing to accept government’s help based on good intentions.
4. We support efforts to broadly reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to make this vast agency more responsible, and responsive, to tribal governments. The especially includes voluntary relocation projects, such as University education opportunities, that adequately follow up on a participant after s/he is placed.
5. We support the just settlement of the claims of the thousands of Native American uranium miners who have suffered and died form radiation exposure. We condemn the stance of secrecy taken by the Atomic Energy Commission during this era and its subsequent claim of government immunity taken knowingly at the expense of Native people’s health and safety.
6. We support the complete clean up of those mines and tailing piles that are a profoundly destructive legacy of the Cold War era
.
7. Aware of the fact that Native American tribes are only allowing nuclear waste on to their land in an attempt to attain monetary means of building a decent standard of living, we feel that the state of Utah must take responsibility for the poverty that people on Utah reservations are facing and give tribes options to waste storage.
8. We stand in alliance with the members of the Skull Valley band of Goshutes who are opposing the proposal for Private Fuel Storage to store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods on their reservation.

J. Immigration/Emmigration

1. Our Nation was built with a rich tapestry of immigrants and we must continue to respect the potential contributions and rights of our new immigrants.
2. Preferential quotas based on race, class, and ideology should be abandoned for immigration policies that promote fairness, non-discrimination, and family reunification.
3. We support policies that reflect our constitutional guarantees of freedoms of speech, association, and travel.
4. We find particular attention should be given those minorities who are political exiles and refugees.
5. Our relationship with Mexico needs to be given added attention that does not require guns or border patrol. Our border relations and reciprocal economic and social opportunities should be a central concern of government that has improving economic, environmental, labor, and social conditions for both people in mind.
6. We oppose those who seek to divide us for political gain by raising ethnic and racial hatreds, blaming immigrants for social and economic problems.

K. Housing

1. Decent, affordable housing for every American must be a component of a campaign at the federal, state, and local level.
2. We hold that government should play an activist role in the availability of housing. A coordinated housing plan that is broad and inclusive should devote resources to non-profit community housing projects, private sector investments, and appropriate public housing initiatives that encourage individual ownership over time.
3. We encourage low impact, site-specific designs that encourage human scale development and environmentally sensitive planning.
4. Pension funds and community development banks can be targeted and can become important sources of new funding. Subsidies, trade-offs with developers and the creative use of city and county zoning ordinances should be emphasized to increase the affordable housing stock available within local communities depending on need.
5. Constructing living spaces should encourage “up not out” architecture, as in larger European cities. Yards should be scaled down, not only to conserve space, but also to conserve water.

III. Environmental Sustainability

A. Energy Policy

A comprehensive energy policy must be a critical element of our environmental thinking. Investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy is key to sustainability. Just as ecological materials management is governed by the concept of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”; ecological energy management must be governed by the principle of Conservation, Efficiency, and Clean Renewables. Of highest importance is to use less, then to use wisely, and to have clean production of what is used. Extensive conservation measures will bring huge resource savings for both the economy and the environment. Conservation, along with energy efficiency and renewables, is an essential part of an effective energy policy. The Greens call for pervasive efforts on the energy conservation front. We encourage the creation and design of human environments that are as energy-efficient as possible, recognizing that yet further conservation efforts are a significant means to meeting our future energy needs without further energy production. Similarly, we support the phasing out of the most ecologically harmful sources of energy. Greens support true-cost pricing, which reflects the actual cost of products including ecological damage and externalities caused during manufacturing processes.

1. We call for the development of a state energy policy that includes disincentives (taxes and/or fines) on energy waste, and the funding of energy research, including credits for alternative and sustainable energy use such as solar, wind, hydrogen and biomass. Hydrogen-based energy development should utilize sources of hydrogen other than fossil fuels.
2. We also support enacting mandatory carbon reduction measures with objectives that seek to minimize such emissions to the lowest levels achievable with available technology.
3. In order to aid in the rapid replacement of extremely polluting energy systems (nuclear and coal-fired power plants), natural gas power plants could help provide needed replacement power until conservation, efficiency and truly clean renewables are fully phased in. Natural gas power plants should not be used to feed an increase in energy demand.
4. We support the concept that new construction be required to achieve substantial portions of its heating energy from the sun in the next few years. Incentives/disincentives should be put in place to move utilities toward establishing solar power stations to augment and eventually supplant fossil fuel generated electricity.

B. Nuclear Issues

The Green Party of Utah recognizes that there is no such thing as nuclear waste disposal. There are no technological methods that can effectively isolate nuclear waste from the biosphere for the duration of its hazardous life. Therefore, it is essential that generation of additional nuclear wastes be stopped. The Green Party of Utah calls for the phase-out of other technologies that use or produce nuclear waste. These technologies include non-commercial nuclear reactors, reprocessing facilities, nuclear waste incinerators, food irradiators and all commercial and military uses of depleted uranium. Current methods of underground storage of nuclear wastes are a danger to present and future generations. Any nuclear waste management strategies must be aboveground, continuously monitored, retrievable and repackageable, and must minimize transportation of wastes. We call for independent, public-access radiation monitoring at all nuclear facilities.

1. We oppose Envirocare of Utah’s application with the Division of Radiation Control to receive a permit that would allow shipment and storage of Class B and Class C radioactive wastes at the Envirocare landfill 60 miles west of the Wasatch Front.
2. The Green Party of Utah strongly opposes any shipment of high-level nuclear waste across Utah to the proposed waste repository on Goshute Reservation land or any other centralized facility. We oppose shipment of nuclear waste through Southeast Utah International Uranium Corporation’s facility near Blanding, Utah for storage, reprocessing, or any other proposed activities concerning nuclear waste.
3. We support applicable environmental impact statements (EIS) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis with citizen participation at all nuclear sites.
4. We support an immediate and intensive campaign to educate the public about nuclear problems, including disposal, clean-up and long-term dangers.
5. We oppose Envirocare of Utah’s application with the Division of Radiation Control to receive a permits that would allow shipment and storage of Class B and Class C radioactive wastes at the Envirocare landfill sixty miles west of the Wasatch Front.
6. We oppose shipment of nuclear waste through Southeast Utah International Uranium Corporation’s facility near Blanding for storage, reprocessing, or any other proposed activities concerning nuclear waste.

C. Waste Management / Incineration

Legal requirements and standards for businesses applying for zoning permits should be formulated to require disclosure of toxics that may be used. We support recycling at every level of the economy. We endorse source reduction and municipal programs that particularly focus on household recycling. The demand for printing paper puts pressure on dwindling forests. Clear cutting continues with all the attendant environmental damage. Alternative paper stock, and recycled papers, should become the norm in the interest of minimizing environmental damage done by commercial tree cutting operations and the pollution produced by paper mills. Environmental justice demands that poor communities, minority and under-represented communities not bear an unfair burden when it comes to disposal of toxic wastes. We strongly advocate adoption of the “precautionary principle” in assessing new products and managing existing ones. This will serve to shift the burden of proof of health damage from the public to industries seeking to release products into the environment. Past violations, illegal use and misuse of hazardous materials have to be remedied appropriately. Those responsible for toxic waste dumping, spills, and contamination on or off their sites should be responsible for the full costs of complete clean up. In addition, we call for levying appropriate fines on those found guilty of violating such standards. We endorse a revisiting of Superfund legislation to make these clean up laws more effective.

1. We oppose incineration of municipal solid waste, sewage, non-biological medical waste, and toxic waste. We support a moratorium on any new incinerators that burn such materials and a rapid shutdown of existing incinerators that do so. We support immediate replacement of the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility/Chemical Weapons Incinerators with one of the non-incineration, closed-loop alternative technologies that have been developed by the Federal Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.
2. We oppose shipping of toxic wastes across national borders and the shipment of toxic/hazardous or radioactive wastes, without regulation, across any political borders without appropriate regulation.
3. We oppose the exportation, under any circumstances, of chemicals that are prohibited in the United States. We support United States ratification of the recently negotiated Persistent Organic Pollutant Treaty (POPS), which calls for the phase-out of the “dirty dozen” most toxic human-made chemicals or chemical byproducts on Earth.
4. We support immediate replacement of the Tooele Chemical Demilitarization Facility/chemical weapons incinerators with one of the non-incineration, closed-loop alternative technologies that have been developed by the Federal Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment.
5. We support ratification of the recently negotiated Persistent Organic Pollutant Treaty (POPS), which calls for the phase-out of the “dirty dozen” most toxic human-made chemicals or chemical byproducts on Earth.

D. Fossil Fuels

We are aware of the environmental hazards that accompany the use of fossil fuels and of their non-sustainability and eventual depletion. We call for transition energy strategies, including the use of relatively clean-burning natural gas, as a way to reorder our energy priorities and over-reliance on traditional fuels. We call for a gradual phase-out of gasoline and other fossil fuels.

1. We advocate fair buybacks of the most polluting and least efficient vehicles to remove these vehicles from the road.
2. Until gasoline driven cars can be replaced, we advocate fuel efficiency standards, a gas-guzzler tax on new low mileage vehicles, and a gas-sipper rebate on high mileage vehicles.
3. We acknowledge the relative benefits that can be achieved in the production of and use of natural gas in current economic alternatives and transition strategies.
4. Public ownership and/or strong public regulation of utilities should be encouraged to advance energy efficient policies. Appropriate tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to finance public ownership in utilities. Tax-exempt bonds should be authorized to allow publicly owned utilities to finance conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy projects.
5. We call for the repeal of H.B. 320: the Questar Bill.

E. Renewable Energy / Products / Materials

Overall, it is essential in the long-term that alternative energy systems be put in place that produce goods that are durable, repairable, reusable, recyclable, and energy-efficient, using both non-toxic materials and nonpolluting production methods. Ultimately, environmentally destructive technologies, processes, and products should be replaced with alternatives that are environmentally benign or positive. Producers/manufacturers must look to redesigning their products. Legislation that will assist this transition (including bans, taxation, recycled content standards and economic incentives/disincentives such as taxation, special fees, and/or deposits) will be required in any concerted move toward system-wide sustainability. We support incentive programs to pursue this goal.

1. We call on regulatory agencies to include life-cycle considerations in their standard-setting process for product approval. We promote citizen participation in this process.
2. We support efforts to develop inexpensive, efficient solar cells, chips and panels via industrial-grade silicon and other advanced materials.

F. Transportation Policy

1. We encourage providing a broad range of incentives for alternative transportation, including natural gas vehicles, solar and electric vehicles, fuel cells, bicycles and bikeways, and mass transit.
2. We must encourage that an increasing percentage of the Federal motor fleet be converted to natural gas with the aims of being pollution free over the next decade.
3. The Green Party of Utah opposes development of the Legacy Highway. We must expand the network of rail lines, high-speed regional passenger service, commuter rail, subway and urban light rail systems.

G. Clean Air / Greenhouse Effect / Ozone Depletion

The Green Party of Utah endorses the concept that every human being has an equal right to the atmosphere. The strict, comprehensive protections of the Clean Air Act must be maintained and enhanced if we are to keep in place effective federal programs that deal with urban smog, toxic air pollution, acid rain, and ozone depletion. State and local clean air initiatives should advance and improve national efforts. As an example, California has taken the lead in legislation moving forward stricter clean air and fuel efficiency standards, and vehicle and fleet conversions. These programs should serve as a model for other local, regional and state initiatives. We urge all governments to table a list of the policies and measures they intend to adopt to attain their target, for example eco-taxes and energy performance standards.

1. An early target must still be set to prevent emissions rising so far that future reductions become even more difficult. There must be commitments for 2005.

H. Land Use

Greens are advocates for the Earth. All the rivers, lakes, landscapes, forests, and wildlife. This is our birthright and our home—the adaptive ecology of the green Earth. Greens take a bioregional view of the ecosystem, acknowledging political boundaries while noting that the land, air and water, the interconnected biosphere, is a unique and precious community, deserving careful consideration and protection. Greens support restructuring institutions to conform to bioregional realities. We feel that, just as the planetary ecology consists of nested systems at various scales, so must our programs and institutions of ecological stewardship be scaled appropriately. Guided by our sense of stewardship, we feel that all land use polices, plans, and practices should be based on sustainable development and production.

We encourage the social ownership and use of land at the community, local, and regional level, for example in the form of community and conservation land trusts, under covenants of ecological responsibility.) Greens find inspiration in building healthy, livable communities. Communities must be designed or redesigned so that they are built with energy efficiency in mind, on a human scale, with integrated land uses. Such integrated land uses should provide, for example, ready access between home and work, and to schools, a local supply of food, shopping, worship, medical care, recreation and natural areas. Integrated land use should also de-emphasize individual motorized transport and place more emphasis on ecologically responsible mass transit, bicycling, and the pedestrian. We promote urban design and architecture that does not alienate, but fulfills, the spirit and that is compatible with human, social, artistic, and environmental values. Greens support the concepts advanced by the New Urbanism movement. As there is much to learn about human-scale development and neighborly social interaction from historical patterns of urbanism, we support historic preservation. Recreational opportunities are the beginning of lifelong appreciation of our natural environment. We should all have opportunities to experience nature firsthand.

It is imperative that we as a nation find a means to control urban sprawl. The ecological, social, and fiscal crises engendered by sprawl are becoming ever more apparent. Greens enthusiastically endorse the Metropolitics movement, which seeks to control sprawl by integrating such measures as urban growth boundaries, tax base sharing, fair housing and metropolitan transportation. Urban areas can be revitalized through Brownfields redevelopment although standards for the clean up of contaminated sites must not be lowered. Rural areas and farmland should be preserved, through such measures as purchase of development rights. Watershed planning should be undertaken to mitigate the impacts of urban development on our streams, rivers, and lakes. Storm water management, soil erosion and sedimentation control, the establishment of vegetative buffers, and performance standards for development are appropriate measures in this area. Special attention must be given to the restoration and protection of riparian areas, which are critical habitats in healthy ecosystems. Greens believe that effective land and resource management practices must be founded on stewardship, such as incorporated in a land ethic as articulated by Aldo Leopold.

1. Stringent natural resource management should serve to prevent activities that adversely affect public and adjacent lands. We call for repeal of the Mining Act of 1872. We demand a halt to federal mineral, oil and gas, and resource giveaways, royalty holidays, and flagrant concessions to the mining, energy and timber industries, and an immediate crackdown on their evasions and fraudulent reporting.
2. We call for strict clean-up enforcement of industrial-scale natural resource extraction activities, for example, of tailings, pits and run-off from mining operations via agreement with companies that can include posting of site-restoration bonds prior to commencement of operations. The regional long-term environmental and social impacts of any resource extractions should be minimized, and the land restored to a healthy ecological state.
3. We call for a halt to all current policies that promote destruction of forest ecosystems and we call for an end to the trade in endangered hardwoods. We support laws that promote paper recycling and mandate sustainable forestry practices that promote biodiversity.
4. We urge protection of old growth forests, a zero-cut policy banning industrial timber harvest on federal and state lands, a ban on all clear-cutting, and a reduction of road building on public lands.
5. We advocate raising grazing fees on public land to approximate fair market value and significant grazing reforms. We support policies that favor small-scale ranchers over corporate operations (which are often used as tax write-offs, a practice that undermines family ranches).
6. We must promote the preservation and extension of wildlife habitat and biological diversity by creating and preserving large continuous tracts of open space (complete ecosystems so as to permit healthy, self-managing wildlife populations to exist in a natural state. We oppose any selling off of our National Parks, the commercial privatizing of public lands; and/or cutbacks or exploitation in our national wilderness areas.
7. Public involvement in decision making via active and well-funded Resource Management District and Councils will aid a long-term process on the use of federal and state trust lands which are currently controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Forest Service, National Park Service, and State Land Offices.
8. We support banning indiscriminate wildlife damage control practices.
9. We urge comprehensive baseline mapping of our nation’s biodiversity resources.

I. Water

With the longer term in mind, we call for elimination of wasteful subsidies on the use of water in agriculture and for municipal water rates to be set high enough, or that other incentives/disincentives be set in place, to discourage the wasteful use of water. Given the profound importance of clean water, we support the establishment of federal, state, and local groundwater protection agencies with authority to establish standards for the use of water; to provide tough and timely enforcement of laws enacted; and to protect our aquifers from overuse, depletion and contamination. We acknowledge Native American rights regarding water, and urge fair and equitable solutions with tribes on the part of the courts and State Water Engineers.

1. We support the federal Clean Water Act setting strict requirements for sewage discharges, wetland protection and water quality standards.
2. We endorse alternative solutions to water treatment and clean-up, for example constructed wetlands and biological remediation.
3. We encourage developing incentives for the use of native plants for ornamental and landscape plantings rather that the cultivation of imported lawn grasses that consume excessive amounts of water.
4. We encourage the use of segregated gray water for irrigation purposes.
5. We oppose the construction of any new dams, especially the two dams currently proposed for the Bear River.
6. We support “true cost pricing” of water as a means to encourage water conservation with the goal of preventing new massive water developments that are currently subsidized through our property tax payments.
7. We support Wild and Scenic River designations on Utah rivers as recommended by the Utah Rivers council.

J. Agriculture

The human species is at the top of the food chain and is, therefore, very vulnerable to the degrading of the environment and the loss of species. If for no other reason than our own preservation, we should work to protect our environment and the diversity of our region and planet’s rich life forms.

Factory farming (industrial farming) threatens to further erode the family farms and the general quality of life in our rural areas. Family farms are the basis of community-based economics and essential to rural development and a healthy, diverse economy. The consequences of factory farming are devastating. Animal wastes are allowed to discharge into rivers and streams, degrading water and air quality, killing aquatic life and posing serious threats to human health and the environment. Corporate industrial farming practices are inhumane and cause unnecessary suffering to animals. We believe that the mark of a humane and civilized society lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals. Industrial farming has changed the type of food we eat, and studies are now demonstrating that nutritional value has been decreased, with resultant immune system impacts.

1. The Green Party of Utah strongly opposes the rampant and damaging policies of corporate industrial farming and calls for a shift away from these practices.
2. We support an immediate ban on the release of genetically engineered organisms into the environment and food supply. We believe the corporations developing these transgenic organisms should be required to prove their safety in the environment before releasing them into the market. Labeling should fully disclose where genetically engineered (and/or irradiated) food is being supplied. Consumer choice needs to be based on full and complete disclosure. Whether it is Bt corn, genetically modified maize, or GM oilseed that finds its way into a menu of other products, the consumer needs to know and choose.
3. We call for the establishment of an ecologically based sustainable agricultural system that moves as rapidly as possible towards regional/bioregional self-reliance.
4. An adequate food supply is tied to many of our nation’s domestic, export, foreign aid, geopolitical and related overseas goals. We support anti-hunger and Food Stamp programs at home, and support assistance to foreign countries and their people that moves them toward self-sufficiency and sustainability in food production.
5. With the increase of foodborne illnesses nationally and locally, we recognize the threat of pathogens in our food supply. We call for strong food safety regulation and inspection at all levels of food production and processing.
6. We call for phasing out the use of man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers, and funding for research to find acceptable alternatives.
7. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques, as an alternative to current chemical-based agriculture.
8. We support the adoption of organic certification standards and support regional efforts to broaden this effort by reaching out to and identifying growers and buyers of organic produce. We support the right of independent organic certifiers to uphold standards that exceed those established by the United States Department of Agriculture.
9. We call for a reconsideration of the potentially far-reaching and unforeseen effects of seed and plant hybridization and especially of genetic engineering in agricultural systems. We are particularly concerned about loss of and increasing threat posed to plant diversity, which must be saved, maintained and enhanced if we are to have an authentic alternative Green revolution, based on diversity, sustainable agriculture and local self-empowerment.
10. We generally oppose the patenting of life forms, including gene-splicing techniques, and call for a moratorium on agricultural genetic engineering while an evaluation of its effects on ecological and social sustainability is carried out. The implications of a corporate takeover, and resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry, are immense. With the introduction of the world’s first genetically engineered (and duly patented) tomato, we need to re-examine our government’s oversight of this untested, unproven field.
11. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agricultural lands, production, and distribution.
12. We support research, within the public and private arenas, including educational institutions, for sustainable, organic, and ecologically balanced agriculture.

K. Biological Diversity

Ecological systems are diverse and interlocking, and nature’s survival strategy can best be found in the adaptability that comes as a result of biological diversity. Although many people may think first of tropical rainforests in reference to the richness of (and threat to) biological diversity, we believe diversity close to home is worthy of saving, as are the myriad species within the rainforest and its teeming canopy.

We look to the Convention on Biological Diversity, first adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, as a primary statement of purpose regarding how we can act to preserve and sustain our common genetic resources. Greens emphasize conservation of natural populations and ecosystems, and we seriously question the demands of the US to amend this unprecedented international agreement on behalf of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with their insistence upon protection of their intellectual property and technology transfer rights. Within these demands are inconsistencies, which can threaten the Convention’s overall goals.

We know that agriculture and food comprise the world’s largest economic market. We find it of great concern that the practices of corporate agribusiness are leading, as scientists are beginning to point out, to diminishing yields; increasing petrochemical fertilizer and pesticide costs; serious topsoil loss; non-point, runoff pollution of waterways and aquifers; and the return of resistant pests and blights requiring ever-larger doses of environmentally harmful pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and/or miticides.

Monocultures have also led to a massive loss of biodiversity as they have displaced traditional varieties and seed stocks. We encourage the use of diverse natural varieties; those passed down over many generations, called open-pollinates because they can be grown out, the best plants’ seeds being saved season to season. In practice, we support this as the basis of an Alternative Green Revolution, sustainable agriculture that is closely connected to the environment, and not dependent on outside companies and their industrial monopolies.

Greens call for a move away from corporate control of agriculture (and the resultant extinction of traditional plant varieties) and instead envision a healthy and sustainable food system, based on crop diversity, community empowerment, self-sufficiency, cooperative marketing, recycling, seed saving, local (and fresh) production, and organic methods. The struggle over the production and quality of our food supply is critical and has yet to be determined. The outcome of this struggle will have an intimate connection to our personal health and the future biological diversity of our environment. We believe strongly that we must work to bring this message every community throughout the world.

Cloning is a challenge to basic Green philosophy. Since the efforts to clone animals, and eventually, humans, has been undertaken by profit-making corporations, the purpose behind such projects is to manufacture commodities. To classify a human (or any part thereof, including human DNA or body organ) as a commodity) is to turn human beings into property. Finally, as Greens, we must add that the mark of a humane and civilized society truly lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all of creation. We find cruelty to animals to be repugnant and criminal. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals.

1. The Green Party of Utah supports a strong, enforceable Endangered Species Act based on the principles of conservation biology.
2. We encourage support of and public access to seed banks and seed collections that emphasize Deep Diversity, particularly through traditional and heirloom seeds.
3. We call for widespread education on the critical importance of efforts being made (including backyard biodiversity gardening) to replant indigenous plant life where it has dwindled or been lost.
4. Corporate agribusiness is founded on F-1 hybrid seeds, proprietary products that cannot be saved season-to-season and have to be bought from the company store at each new planting. We discourage monopolistic production of high-tech hybrid seeds, the basis of the evolving industry of monoculture agriculture—i.e., agribusiness that relies on non-sustainable methods (single crop varieties bred with industrial traits and grown with high energy, chemical and pesticide inputs).
5. We oppose in principle international trade agreements (NAFTA, GATT and the WTO in particular) that have precedent-setting provisions protecting transnational, corporate control of the intellectual property of genetic material, hybrid seeds and proprietary products.

L. Population

Human population growth has stressed ecological limits and promotes excessive resource use. The population must be able to live within these ecological boundaries. This means we must practice reduction in the growth of the human population to sustainable levels with the natural ecology.

IV. Economic Sustainability

A. Eco-Nomics

1. To create an enduring society, we must devise a system of production and commerce where every act is sustainable and restorative. We believe that all business has a social contract with society and the environment (in effect a fiduciary responsibility), and that socially responsible business and shareholder democracy can be models of prospering, successful business.
2. We call for an economic system that is based on a combination of private businesses, decentralized democratic cooperatives, publicly owned enterprises, and alternative economic structures, all of which put human and ecological needs alongside profits to measure success, and are accountable to the communities in which they function.
3. Community-based economics constitutes an alternative to both corporate capitalism and state socialism. It is very much in keeping with the Greens’ valuation of diversity and decentralization.
4. Recognition of limits is central to a Green economic orientation. The drive to accumulate power and wealth must become recognized for what it is, a pernicious characteristic of a civilization headed, ever more rapidly, in a pathological direction. Greens advocate that economic relations become more direct, more cooperative, and more egalitarian.
5. Humanizing economic relations is just one aspect of our broader objective: to consciously and deliberately (albeit gradually) shift toward a different way of life­ characterized by sustainability, regionalization, a more harmonious balance between the natural ecosphere and the human-made technosphere, and a revival of community life.
6. Greens support a major redesign of commerce. We endorse true-cost pricing. We support production that eliminates waste. In natural systems, everything is a meal for something else. Everything recycles; there is no waste. We need to mimic natural systems in the way we manufacture and produce things. Consumables need to be designed to be thrown into a compost heap and/or eaten, for example. Durable goods would be designed in closed-loop systems, ultimately to be disassembled and reassembled. Toxics would be safeguarded and could have markers identifying them as belonging, in perpetuity, to their makers.
7. We need to remake commerce to encourage diversity and variety, responding to the enormous complexity of global and local conditions. Big business is not about appropriateness and adaptability, but about power and market control. Greens support small business, responsible stakeholder capitalism, and broad and diverse forms of economic cooperation. Economic diversity is more responsive than big business to the needs of diverse human populations. Sustaining our quality of life, eco-nomic prosperity, environmental health, and long-term survival demands that we adopt new ways of doing business.
8. Greens support a definition of sustainability where we openly examine the economy as a part of the ecosystem, not as an isolated subset in which nothing but resources come in and products and waste go out and never the economy and the real world shall meet.

B. Re-Asserting Local Citizen Control over Corporations

1. Currently, corporations possess more rights and freedoms than natural human persons do. Through a series of judicial rulings, and by virtue of their ability to control governments and economies by virtue of wealth, corporations have judicially rewritten our constitution and have emerged as unaccountable, unelected governments. The Greens, therefore, support all reforms that seek to supplant governmental regulation of corporations with communities that seek to define corporations. In the interim, Greens support measures that hold executives and officers of corporations directly liable for harm that results from their decisions. Corporate crime may be one area where mandatory sentences are an appropriate form of punishment.
2. In the late 19th century, however, corporations claimed special protections under the Constitution. Large companies used legal power to assert legal authority over what to make and how to make it, to move money, influence elections, bend governments to their will. They insisted that once formed, corporations might operate forever, with the privilege of limited liability and freedom from community or worker interference in business judgments.
3. It is inappropriate for investment and production decisions that can shape our communities and lives to be made essentially from afar, in boardrooms, closed-door regulatory agencies, and prohibitively expensive courtrooms that are not accountable to the social and community harm that their decisions may create. Therefore, we call for open-ness in the decision-making process, guided by the principle, what affects all, should be decided by all.
4. It is unacceptable to have the level of influence now being exerted by corporate interests over the public interest. We challenge the propriety and equity of corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks, subsidies, payments, grants, bailouts, giveaways, unenforced laws and regulations; and historic, continuing access to our vast public resources, including millions of acres of land, forests, mineral resources, intellectual property rights, and government-created research.
5. We call for revisiting what one Supreme Court Justice called, when referring to the history of constitutional law, the history of the impact of the modern corporation upon the American scene. We believe that corporations are neither inevitable nor always appropriate. Judicial and legislative decisions that have made it possible for big business to stay beyond the reach of democracy need to be re-examined.
6. Legal doctrines must be continually revised in recognition of the changing needs of an active, democratic citizenry. Huge multi-national corporations are artificial creations, not natural persons uniquely sheltered under constitutional protections. It is time to support local government and state government attempts to define corporations and to prevent these entities from exercising democratic rights which are uniquely possessed by the citizens of the United States.

C. Livable Income

1. We affirm the importance of access to a livable income.
2. Job banks and other innovative training and employment programs that bring together the private and public sectors must become state and local priorities. People who are unable to find decent work in the private sector should have options through publicly funded opportunities
.
3. Workforce development programs must aim at moving people out of poverty; a living wage campaign and living wage standard will go a long way toward achieving this goal.
4. We urge that local debate be held and broad public mandate be sought regarding (fiscal and monetary) economic strategies and policies as they impact wages. This debate is long overdue. The growing inequities in income and wealth between rich and poor; unprecedented discrepancies in salary and benefits between corporate top executives and line workers; loss of dignity from the lives of the young and middle-class. Each is a symptom of decisions made by policy-makers far removed from the concerns of ordinary workers trying to keep up.
5. Today, executive pay is on average is more 520 times the income of the entry-level workers is the same firms. Due to the exponentially increasing inequality of wealth, and the inability of the market maintain fair income distribution, we propose that all workers are guaranteed a minimum profit sharing percentage. This would ensure that workers are rewarded for their hard work, and it would also prevent corporate executives from siphoning large portions of company resources to themselves and their cronies at the expense of workers. This guaranteed profit sharing percentage would be based on the total number of workers in the firm, and distribution would be guaranteed on a yearly basis, but by no means limited to such a time period.

D. Community Involvement

1. Reforms to allow communities to have influence in their economic future should be implemented, including:
2. Locally owned small businesses, which are more accessible to community concerns.
3. Local production and consumption where possible.
4. Consumer co-ops, credit unions, incubators, micro-loan funds, local currencies, and other institutions that help communities develop economic projects.
5. Allowing municipalities to approve or disapprove large economic projects case-by-case based on environmental impacts, local ownership, community reinvestment, wage levels, and working conditions.
6. Allowing communities to set environmental, human rights, health and safety standards higher than federal or state minimums.
7. We support a state program of investing in the commons; to rebuild the infrastructure of communities; to repair and improve transportation lines between cities; and to protect and restore the environment.
8. We endorse direct democracy through town meetings, which express a community’s wishes on economic decision-making directly to local institutions and organizations.

E. Small Business and Job Creation

1. Greens support an economic program that combats concentration and abuse of economic power. We support many different initiatives for forming successful, small enterprises that together can become an engine (and sustainable model) of job creation, prosperity and progress.
2. Access to capital is often an essential need in growing a business. There should be a comprehensive set of approaches to making loans available to small business at rates competitive to those offered big business. Financial institutions unfairly favor large corporations and the wealthy when determining how to work their loan portfolios.
3. Government needs to reform current lending practices. We support disclosure laws, anti-redlining laws, and a general openness on the part of the private sector as to what criteria are used in making lending decisions. As lending institutions have obligations to the health of their local communities, we oppose arbitrary or discriminatory practices that act to deny small business access to credit and expansion capital. We oppose disinvestment practices, in which lending and financial institutions move money deposited in local communities out of those same communities, in effect often damaging the best interests of their customers and community.
4. The present tax system acts to discourage small business, as it encourages waste, discourages conservation, and rewards consumption. Big business has used insider access to dominate the federal tax code. The tax system needs a major overhaul, to get it up and running in a way that favors the legitimate and critical needs of the small business community. Retention of capital, through retained earnings, efficiencies, and savings, is central to small business remaining competitive. Current tax policies often act to unfairly penalize small business.
5. Government should reduce wherever possible unnecessary restrictions, fees, and red tape. In particular, the Paper Simplification Act should be seen as a way to benefit small business and it should be improved in response to the needs of small businesses.
6. Overall we believe that State government must pay more attention to putting forward policies that work on behalf of small business, and break their cycle of excessive welfare for big business.
7. State and local government should encourage where appropriate businesses that especially benefit the community. Economic development initiatives should include citizen and community input. The type and size of businesses provided incentives (tax, loans, bonds, etc.) should be the result of local community participation.
8. Pension funds, the result of workers’ investments, should be examined as additional sources of capital for small business. Definitions of fiscally prudent need to be broadened within acceptable margins of safety to include investments beyond the current practices (and a credit rating system) almost exclusively benefiting large corporations. Investment managers need to be given discretionary powers to channel these monies, now in the trillions of dollars, into productive small- and mid-sized businesses at the local level.
9. Insurance costs need to be brought down by means of active engagement with the insurance industry. Insurance pools, for example, of the kind offered businesses in the association Business for Social Responsibility, need to be expanded.
10. One-stop offices should be set up by government to assist individuals who want to change careers, or go into business for the first time.
11. Home-based businesses and neighborhood-based businesses need to be assisted by forward-looking planning, not hurt by out-of-date zoning ordinances. Telecommuting and home offices should be aided, not hindered, by government.

F. Rural Development

1. Economic development in rural areas spans many agencies of government, but eventually comes back to prospering, healthy farms and ranch lands. Recreation, local business, schools and education, health care and energy availability - all are necessary to support diversified, successful rural economies.
2. Rural development policy should begin with the local people. Family farms are the backbone of a sustainable rural economy. They are more likely than corporate agribusiness to follow ecological practices that enrich the land; to use labor-intensive rather than energy-intensive farming methods, and to support agricultural biodiversity. Because of their smaller scale and production methods, they are more likely to produce food products that are healthier for consumers. State and local governments should provide financial assistance to small farmers to help them compete against agribusiness, cooperative ventures to broaden markets of local producers and state assisted product marketing efforts and rural development banks.

G. Banking for People

1. We support a broad program of reform in the banking and savings and loan industry that acts to ensure that their commonwealth obligations to serve all communities are met. We understand that the present system is skewed to service first and foremost large businesses, transnational corporations and wealthy individuals. Since lending institutions are chartered by the state to serve the best interests of communities, the privileges that come with being given power at the center of commerce carry special responsibilities.
2. The government should take serious steps to ensure that low- and moderate-income persons and communities, as well as small business, have access to banking services, affordable loans and small-business supporting capital.
3. We support the extension of the Community Reinvestment Act and its key performance data provisions to provide public and timely information on the extent of housing loans, small business loans, loans to minority-owned enterprises, investments in community development projects and affordable housing.
4. We believe the legislature should act to charter community development banks, which would be capitalized with public funds and work to meet the credit needs of local communities.

H. Insurance Reform

1. We endorse wide ranging insurance industry regulation to reduce the cost of insurance by reducing its special-interest protections; collusion and over-pricing; and excessive industry-wide practices that too often injure the interests of the insured when they’re most vulnerable and in need.
2. We call for actions at the federal and state level to rein in bad faith insurance actions—including the standard practice of attempting legal avoidance of obligations, and the current widespread practice of price fixing.
3. We support federal law that acts to make policies transportable from job to job and seeks to prevent insurance companies’ rejection of applicants for prior conditions. This is a move in the right direction but in no way addresses the scope of the problem, whether in health insurance, life insurance, business, liability, auto or crop insurance.
4. We support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that work to expand credit—for economic development in inner cities; affordable housing and home ownership among the poor; transitional farming to sustainable agriculture; and for rural development maintaining family farms.
5. In the absence of a federal single-payer insurance program, the Utah government should initiate and subsidize the creation of non-profit insurance industry in all major areas; auto, life, home, dental, travel, etc. The presence of such companies would drive down the prices of the for-profit insurance providers and force them to provide a better service for a greater value, and would assist in an eventual movement towards the creation of a national single payer system all insurance areas.