Green Party Calls for Strong Climate Action, Immigrant Rights, Health Care, Tax the Rich in SOS

Media Release

For Immediate Release: January 11, 2026
For More info: Gloria Mattera, [email protected], 917-886-4538
Peter LaVenia, [email protected], 518 495-8001
Mark Dunlea, [email protected], 518 860-3725

Green Party Calls for Strong Climate Action, Immigrant Rights, Health Care, Tax the Rich in SOS

The Green Party of New York stated that climate action, childcare, taxing the wealthy, single-payer healthcare, and housing will be key to addressing the affordability issue in the upcoming legislative session.

Ahead of Governor Hochul's annual State of the State address on Jan. 13, the Party also called for strong immigration protections, such as the NY For All Act and other measures to protect New Yorkers against the ICE militia unleashed by Trump. The Green Party has called for murder charges to be brought against the ICE officer who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis.

The Party urged lawmakers to embrace many of the initiatives being promoted by NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, including support for free universal childcare and free mass transit. The Party said that Hochul's agreement to fund the first two years of childcare in the city was a good first step, but should be made permanent and expanded statewide.

"The oligarchs already have Trump as their champion. We need the Governor and State lawmakers to reverse the transfer of wealth to the 1% that continues to accelerate. New York needs to lead the nation in income equality, not inequality. That starts with massive tax hikes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and large corporations, including an end to the rebate of the Stock Transfer Tax," said Gloria Mattera, Green Party co-chair.

Such funds are needed to offset the major cuts being inflicted by Trump, including his recent directive to freeze funding for childcare and public assistance. The Greens support an increase in the public assistance grant to raise households above the poverty level and to reflect the real cost of housing.

The Party opposes efforts to roll back criminal justice reforms such as Raise the Age, and supports needed changes such as Elder Parole, Fair and Timely Parole, and Daniel's Law. Daniel's Law would remove police officers as first responders to people experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, replacing them with social workers, mental health counselors, peers, and other health workers.

The Green Party has long advocated eliminating private health insurance rather than the subsidy approach under Obamacare. NY Health would save money while providing quality care to all New Yorkers with no co-pays, premiums, or deductibles.

"A key to affordable housing is to build extensive quality public social housing statewide along with stronger rent control and tenant protection measures," said Prof. Peter LaVenia, co-chair of GPNY.

The Green Party called for ecosocialist solutions to the climate crisis. The Green Party initiated the call for a Green New Deal in 2010, combining a ten-year program to zero emissions with a comprehensive Bill of Economic Rights, including college and guaranteed living wage jobs and income.

"We need to strengthen the state's climate law, not weaken it. Hochul, the GOP and many mainstream Democrats are advocating to cover up the malfeasance in responding to the climate crisis. We need to put real teeth and money into investing 40% or more of climate and energy funds into environmental justice communities," added Mark Dunlea, Secretary of the EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the US.

The refusal of the state to phase out fossil fuels is a major reason for New York's high energy costs, with massive expenditures needed to maintain, build, and replace its aging infrastructure. Renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuels or nuclear energy and continues to get cheaper. Instead of wasting $30 billion plus to expand subsidies to old nuclear plants as Hochul has proposed, the Greens would invest those funds in solar, wind, battery storage, demand management, conservation, geothermal, and energy efficiency.

Various reports show that electricity prices have nearly tripled in 5 years near data centers, leading many to call for a moratorium on any new projects. The Green Party supports a ban on such centers, as well as cryptocurrency computer farms using Proof of Work (e.g. Bitcoin). The Greens said that, at a minimum, data centers need to pay a surcharge to reflect their negative impact on electricity prices.

The International Monetary Fund estimates that the world's governments provide more than $7 trillion annually to subsidize fossil fuels. The biggest subsidy comes from governments that fail to charge fossil fuel users for the damages they cause. New Yorkers spend an extra $50 billion a year just on added health care costs due to air pollution. While Hochul has stalled her cap-and-trade proposal, the Green Party prefers a robust carbon tax combined with a large rebate to low- and middle-income residents.

The state admits it needs to raise at least $10 billion in new climate funds annually. This includes paying to help residents decarbonize their buildings.

The Party also supports NYPA building at least 20 GW of new publicly owned renewables by 2030, along with the state takeover of the distribution and transmission grid, which acts as a major barrier to developing renewables. The Party opposes Hochul's push for NYPA to build at least 1 GW of new nuclear power.

The Party also challenged the Democrats to live up to their rhetoric about protecting democracy and repeal the changes to the ballot access laws made under Cuomo, which eliminated the state ballot status of the Green and other independent third parties.