The corrupting influence of corporate money in politics gives power to the wealthy and leaves the average worker on the sidelines. The result has been lower real wages, a growing concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands, and the steady flow of capital and jobs to overseas markets with cheap labor, few worker safety laws, or environmental controls. Our working communities have become little more than expendable sources of labor and repositories for waste. The Green Party supports locally owned, community based businesses. Small businesses employ far more people than the biggest corporations. They are subject to the same onerous regulations as big companies, without reaping the public handouts that governments give large corporations.
We believe that corporations should be held to stringent public interest standards in all facets of their operations and that ending the favoritism doled out to the wealthiest businesses is vital to the building of sustainable communities and local market economies.
Therefore we propose that:
· Corporations should be held accountable, both here and abroad, to stringent public interest standards in all facets of their operations. We resolutely oppose corporate welfare whereby risks are socialized and rewards are privatized, and in particular we oppose government programs that unfairly favor large over small businesses.
· Worker participation be increased in decision making in privately owned firms and consumers protected from corporate abuse. The Maryland Green Party supports initiatives to make the legal and financial systems more friendly to cooperatives, and we work to make cooperatives of all kinds more responsive to the needs of their members and to the needs of the communities where they are located.
· Creation of a progressive wealth tax on those with over $1 million in property, excluding the value of one's home or business.
· Governments should not bid for major corporations through tax and regulatory incentives. Small businesses create the vast majority of jobs in the country, while corporations often ship their
profits to overseas tax havens, and their jobs to low wage countries. States should encourage the sector that brings the most local benefit.
· Governments should simplify overly complex and costly regulations on small businesses where possible. Where regulation is necessary, small businesses should be compensated with support programs such as micro-credit and tax incentives. Maryland should adopt a policy to increase the number of small businesses in the state.
· Workers should be guaranteed a living wage and safe working conditions. Since the minimum wage has steadily fallen in real terms, the Maryland Green Party calls for raising the state minimum wage, and supports ongoing local living wage campaigns in a number of our municipalities.
· Maryland must restore collective bargaining rights to state employees.
· Affordable housing programs, food stamp programs, income support, or "welfare" programs for single mothers, and head start and school lunch programs for indigent children are the first priority of those fighting for economic justice and should be restored, expanded and improved.
· Legislation should be adopted to prevent any employer fro discriminating against any employee on the basis of conduct during non working hours away from the employer's premises, or to collect information about the off-duty behavior or personal characteristics of employees or applicants.
· Utilities should be maintained in public hands. One of the most environmentally progressive utilities is Austin Energy, which is a community owned business. Maryland utilities should be patterned after Austin’s example.
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