1/16/25 - The Green Party of New York said that Governor Hochul’s State of the State failed to lay out the bold action needed to deal with the multiple crises facing New York. “Governor Hochul claims her 2025 agenda will deal with the economic problems facing working class New Yorkers, but her proposals are timid steps conditioned by corporate donors rather than the radical and swift action we need,” said Peter LaVenia, co-chair of the Green Party. The Green Party released its progressive agenda for 2025, including ballot access reform to restore third party political rights, enacting Ranked Choice Voting and proportional representation, passing state-wide single-payer universal healthcare, and needed housing reforms including rent control, constructing one million units of publicly owned social housing. The party argued for immediate action on climate change and opposed Hochul’s steps toward nuclear power, and said that taxing the rich, including stopping the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax, would help pay for needed reforms and social program expansion including reinvestment in impacted communities, rather than Hochul’s small “inflation rebate” and tax cuts. They said immediate action should be taken to protect immigrants in the face of president-elect Trump’s threat to deport millions, and that New York should divest from companies involved in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

11/9/24 The Green Party of New York called upon Governor Hochul to begin delivering on her promise to stand up for New Yorkers after Donald Trump’s election by signing key climate legislation including the Climate Superfund bill and restarting congestion pricing. The Green Party, which finished third in the national elections, also called upon state lawmakers to hold a special legislative session in early December to pass critical bills, particularly on climate and immigration rights, and to override any gubernatorial vetoes. They also said the Legislature should repeal the draconian ballot access laws passed under Cuomo in 2020 and work on making New York’s laws a gold standard for democracy and choice. “We need action, not sound bites. Voters rejected VP Harris because they know the Democrats are much better at making promises than they are at delivering them. With Trump poised to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, it is up to the states to provide real leadership. Hochul should make polluters pay by immediately signing the Climate Superfund Act. The Governor needs to speed up climate action, not weaken the already too slow timelines in the CLCPA while embracing false and expensive climate solutions like nuclear and hydrogen,” said Peter A. LaVenia, Jr., Green Party of New York co-chair.

10/21/24 - New York is the worst state in the nation for voter choice at a time when growing numbers of citizens are dissatisfied with the Democratic and Republican party’s candidates, according to Green Party officials.  Party leaders pointed out that New York is the only state in the nation to have just two presidential candidates on the ballot, and that in the last 40 years this has happened in only one other state, Oklahoma. Oklahoma has since eased its ballot access laws in 2012 to allow for multiple presidential candidates.  The Green Party said that this lack of choice hurts democracy in New York, contributes to voter suppression, and amounts to cartelization of the political process by the Democratic and Republican parties. Party officials said that Gov. Kathleen Hochul and New York legislators should move quickly to restore ballot-access requirements to what they were prior to 2020’s draconian changes by disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and then work to make New York’s election laws a “gold standard” for the nation.

9/3/24 Ahead of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s energy summit in Syracuse on September 5, the Green Party of New York urged state lawmakers to speed up the transition to zero emissions and 100% clean renewable energy. Hochul convened the summit after admitting that the state was failing to meet its clean energy goals, prompting business leaders to urge her to weaken the climate laws. The Green Party pushed for a climate law far stronger than the CLCPA (Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act) adopted 5 years ago. Since 2010 it has called for an ecosocialist Green New Deal in New York, with a ten-year timeline to 100% renewable energy and zero emissions, combined with a comprehensive economic Bill of Rights. The Party also urged lawmakers to implement the congestion pricing program for NYC that Hochul has halted. “Hochul and other Democrats, including Kamala Harris, continue to appease the fossil fuel industry and their campaign donors.  We need the Democrats to reject false climate solutions such as nuclear power, hydrogen, biofuels, fracking, natural gas, and carbon capture and sequestration. We need to create energy and economic systems that are publicly owned and democratically controlled that focus on preventing climate collapse and promote the common good, not wasting money on greening capitalism and the 1%,” said Gloria Mattera, co-chair of the Green Party. The Party faulted Hochul for slow-walking implementation of the Build Public Renewables Act and for failing to sign the legislation to block the use of carbon dioxide for fracking.