I. BRING HOME NATIONAL GUARD.

a. Bring home Pennsylvania’s National Guard troops from overseas by invoking a state’s right to determine the deployment of its National Guard units.

b. Ensure full medical benefits and services for all returning vets.

II. A FUTURE BUILT ON SUSTAINABLE ENERGY.

a. Implement zero emissions clean Energy initiatives that will result in sustainable long-term reductions in greenhouse gas pollutants through development of wind and solar energy.

b. Focus economic development initiatives on building a “Green Economy” in PA.

c. End all use of nuclear power production in Pennsylvania.

III. CONSERVE RESOURCES AND REDRESS POLLUTION.

a. Investigate and calculate the air, ground and water pollution caused by toxics generating industry and military activities, and

b. Pursue recovery of costs for environmental damages from polluting private businesses or individuals. Reparations must be made to communities suffering such environmental and social damages.

IV. SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE – NO MORE, NO LESS.

Enact single-payer universal health care for all Pennsylvanians, state-funded and locally administered with an emphasis on the greatest possible flexibility for doctors and patients, to guarantee health care for all, alleviate the medical malpractice insurance crisis and cut costs by focusing on prevention. 

V. COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMICS, NOT CORPORATE WELFARE.

a. End KOZ (Keystone Opportunity Zone) tax breaks that are nothing more than corporate welfare that privatize profit while placing the risks on the public.

b. Instead, offer low-interest loans to local, sustainable small businesses.

c. Shift as much state purchasing as possible to in-state, small and sustainable businesses.

d. Encourage small, locally-owned businesses and especially worker-owned cooperatives.

VI. LIVING WAGE.

Raise the minimum wage to a “self-sufficiency” wage, calculated based on the cost of living on county level. Transition to this living wage over time so that small businesses in particular are able to adjust as the state economy shifts to accommodate higher wages for low-income workers.

VII. FAIR TAXATION.

a. End reliance on property taxes to pay for critical social services, particularly education.

b. Amend PA Constitution to permit a progressively graduated state income tax and implement one.

c. Raise taxes on extractive industries, such as logging, mining and drilling operations and using those taxes strictly to support reducing the consumption of such resources and supporting the development of sustainable and renewable alternatives.

VIII. PUBLIC TRANSIT AND BRIDGE REPAIR, NOT NEW HIGHWAYS.

a. Urban transit spending needs to be dramatically increased in order to best serve Pennsylvanians.

b. Transportation infrastructure must not be privatized.

IX. EQUITABLE SCHOOL FUNDING.

a. Increase state funding of school districts, along the lines proposed by GOOD SCHOOLS PA, to restore fair educational spending that does not condemn rural and urban districts to inferior educational outcomes.

b. Eliminate school district takeovers by state or municipal government or private enterprises as a threat to democracy, and support democratically elected school boards of local citizens.

X. CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

a. End the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania.

b. Establish statewide funding of Public Defenders Offices throughout the Commonwealth.

c. Create commonsense gun laws that severely restrict handgun possession in urban areas.

d. End the criminalization of the possession of small amounts of marijuana and the legalization of medical marijuana.

XI. ELECTION REFORMS.

a. Institute Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) in all single-office state-wide elections.

b. Change representation in the State Assembly to a proportional system and institute Single Transferable Voting (STV) voting to fill Assembly seats proportionally.

c. Enact same-day registration and an Election Day holiday.

d. Require voter-verified paper trail for all voting machines.

e. Establish state-funded voluntary clean elections and enact reasonable campaign spending and political contribution limits.

f. Ensure equitable ballot access across the political spectrum, in which small parties that demonstrate a modicum of support have the same ballot access as larger political parties.

g. Implement initiative and referendum processes for citizen-proposed legislation in Pennsylvania elections.

XII. GLBT MARRIAGE RIGHTS.

a. Protect sexual and gender minority communities from discrimination.

b. Amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Act to abolish discrimination on the basis of sexual minority status.

c. Amend the family law and domestic relations statutes at Title 23 of Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes creating marriage equality in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania such that same-sex couples have the same and full set of marriage rights that heterosexual couples have.

d. Repeal the Pennsylvania Defense of Marriage act.

e. Guarantee the right of sexual minority and gender minority residents to adopt children either through first or second parent adoption.

XIII. REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE.

Support full reproductive choice, including funding for comprehensive family planning education and services, Medicaid coverage of abortion, and repeal of the Abortion Control Act.

XIV. IMMIGRATION REFORM.

Reform immigration legislation to protect immigrant populations in Pennsylvania.

XV. ENCOURAGE SUSTAINABLE, SMALL-SCALE, ORGANIC FARMING.

a. Protect and support Pennsylvania’s remaining family farms.

b. Abolish large-scale corporate farming.

c. Promote organic farming, sustainable toxin-free agriculture, and local produce markets.

XVI. GOVERNMENTAL TRANSPARENCY.

Make complete open records and data available to the citizenry with the goal of providing government records and data digitally on the internet.

Text in green is language already formally approved by the GPPA State Committee
Text in purple is proposed language not yet formally approved by the GPPA State Committee
Last Updated June 5, 2008.