Budget

Greens believe the first priority in budgeting at all levels of government should be investing in the general welfare of the people of California and the state's natural environment.

In particular Greens support generous funding for health, education, public transportation and environmental protection, which are all great social equalizers and provide a floor of social justice for all Californians. Greens also favor education over incarceration, and believe budget priorities should reflect this.

Such strategic social investments are not only just, but help reduce greater future costs, by minimizing or eliminating problems before they occur. 

For example, investing in education instead of incarceration will lead to more productive lives and less crime and social problems; investing in renewable energy and sustainable development will help reduce future costs related to adapting to climate change; and investing in nutrition and a statewide universal single-payer health care system will promote public health and reduce health care costs.

To ensure sufficient funding for our needs, Greens support a fair taxation approach of more progressive taxation on income while closing tax loopholes and eliminating corporate welfare; ecological taxes on economic practices that ensure that the real costs of goods and services are borne by those who purchase and use them, and are not displaced upon society as a whole; and a land value tax that captures the socially-created wealth of land for society, while simultaneously rewarding individual investment and initiative of property owners. 

Greens also believe that many public infrastructure projects should be funded via the establishment of a publicly-owned California state bank which would substantially lower borrowing costs and hence make such projects less expensive by lowering interest rates, and keep more of the public's money in the state instead of going to Wall Street.

The Green Party supports

- Prioritizing investment  in the general welfare of the people of California and the state's natural environment, with a priority on support for health, education, public transportation and environmental protection

- Funding education over incarceration

- Creating a publicly-owned, California state bank to help finance public infrastructure projects

Amended by the GPCA Standing General Assembly, July 3, 2016