"The Green Party will run a proactive campaign, an
issues-oriented campaign and an effective campaign." She
highlighted some of the major issues she intends to address in her
campaign, including the growing gap between the rich and the poor,
the state of the environment in Pennsylvania, tax reform and
revitalization of the rural economy.
"I am deeply concerned about the growing wealth gap in
District 9 and throughout our state and country. As of 1998: The
top 1% of the population holds 38% of the wealth; the bottom 90%
holds 29% of the wealth. All together the top 10% of the
population holds 71% of the wealth. The wealth gap is so extreme
that even some of the very wealthy people are alarmed and have
formed Citizens for Responsible Wealth and other organizations to
address this problem. We need to unite for a fair economy. And we
need to find a way to solve this problem that goes beyond the old
inefficient bureaucratic approaches of the past.
"In my work as a mental health counselor I am keenly aware
of the high level of stress that is building up in people due to
conditions in the workplace and the lack of economic and job
security. Most of us are only three months or less away from total
bankruptcy if we should lose our job and not find a new one in
time.
"I am sad to tell you that the Gold and Green 2000 Report
of the Institute for Southern Studies ranks Pennsylvania at 10th
from the bottom among all 50 states surveyed on the environment.
No other state's environmental score has dropped as dramatically
in the past six years. We simply must improve Pennsylvania's
environmental record.
"I know without a doubt that both the wealth gap and our
environmental problems can be solved. Now emerging are the
guidelines for the Next Economy and they are neither right nor
left but up in front. The policies of the Next Economy affirm
individual freedom and the many benefits of the market economy and
also can strengthen and support the provisioning of basic needs
for good education, health care, and a safe and clean environment.
"One of the major reasons I have decided to accept the
Green Party nomination as candidate for Congress for District Nine
is to bring to the fore progressive and practical new taxation and
economic policy directives.
"My second career is that of tax reform educator and
advocate. Taxation policy is extremely important. The power of
taxation is quite literally the power to create or destroy. A new
and promising direction is emerging in the field of tax reform
policy. We call this approach the "green tax shift."
"Green taxes tax bads, not goods. They shift taxes off of
work and onto waste. With a green tax system, you pay for what you
take, not what you make. Green taxes shift taxes off of wages and
earned income, off of homes and other buildings, and off of
productive and sustainable capital. Green tax policy seeks to
eliminate subsidies that are socially or environmentally harmful
or inequitable. Green tax policy shifts the public revenue base to
fees-for-use of our precious and limited natural resources.
"Two quick examples. In the state of Alaska, royalties for
oil are collected by the state as a common heritage right for all
citizens of Alaska and then conserved in a permanent investment
fund and distributed as citizen dividends. This last October each
woman, man and child who had been resident of Alaska for at least
one year received nearly $2000 as a cash dividend.
"Eighteen cities of Pennsylvania have been leading the way
in another green tax shift approach, now endorsed by many who are
concerned about issues of sprawl and the economic revitalization
of our towns and cities. The so-called 'two-rate' or 'split-rate'
tax lowers taxes on homes and buildings, so if you fix up your
place there is no tax penality, and shifts taxes onto landsite
values to curb speculation and sprawl and to encourage a healthy
urban economy.
"In my position as State Coordinator of the Pennsylvania
Fair Tax Coalition, I am working for fundamental tax reform in our
state. From 1993-1998, I worked on a campaign for tax reform
legislation which I initiated. Governor Thomas Ridge signed the
bill as Act 108 on November 1998. State Representative Jeff Coy
co-sponsored the bill in the House. I worked closely with Senator
Terry Punt and his staff in Harrisburg where Senate Bill 211
passed under his sponsorship with a unanimous vote in the Senate
and with only two votes against in the House.
"Subsequently several boroughs in Pennsylvania have
adopted the tax reform approach which the bill enables, and many
more have it under consideration. All of the nearly 1000 boroughs
of Pennsylvania can benefit from this legislative success. As we
travel around District Nine during this campaign I will consult
with concerned citizens, borough managers and town council members
about the potential benefits of this local tax reform for their
communities.
"Most recently I have drafted a resolution for tax reform
legislation for first and second class townships of Pennsylvania
(1/11/01).
"We will also be talking about the revitalization of our
rural areas. I am particularly interested in tapping the vast
potential of District Nine for sustainable, organic agriculture,
for strengthening family farming, and for local production for
local needs. Our Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable
Agriculture is the fastest growing of any such organization in the
country. I am a member of the Pennsylvania Association for
Sustainable Agriculture and will be attending the PASA conference
again this year at State College on February 9th and 10th...."
"Since 1992 I have been in private practice in mental
health counseling in the Chambersburg area, and am listed on the
mental health service providers for Franklin County.
"My family is deeply rooted in Franklin County,
Pennsylvania. My father, Lee Hartzok, was a business owner and
former president of the Chambersburg Chamber of Commerce and has
been actively involved with numerous service organizations. He
currently serves as Board President of the South Mountain
Restoration Center, a Governor appointment. My mother, Ruth
Aughinbaugh Hartzok, has been a volunteer for Meals on Wheels and
tour organizer for AARP for several years. I have a daughter and
son, ages 16 and 19 respectively.
"I graduated from Chambersburg Area Senior High School and
received a bachelors degree in psychology from Ohio Wesleyan
University and a master's degree in psychology from West Georgia
College. I studied in Vienna, Austria for a year and completed a
four-year professional training program in Montreal, Canada.
"I co-chaired, with Mike Waters, the Housing Task Force of
the Greater Chambersburg 2000 Partnership, members being leading
government officials, business and community leaders.
"I was appointed by Mayor Robert Morris to the
Chambersburg Conflict Resolution Team established to respond
immediately to conflicts of a civil nature.
"On the national level, I serve as Vice President of the
Council of Georgist Organizations, comprised of 30 member
organizations nationwide. This organization is named after Henry
George, a self-educated economist, journalist and a Philadelphian,
who devoted his life to solving the problem of the growing
rich/poor gap through economics that transcend the left/right
paradigm.
"At an international level, I serve as United Nations
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Representative for an
international organization which itself has 60 member
organizations worldwide. I organized and presented in six sessions
of the NGO Forum during the 1996 UN Center for Human Settlements
in Istanbul. This Habitat II global conference, attended by
representatives of 163 nations and more than 15,000 NGOs,
rigorously discussed the challenges of rural and urban housing and
other human needs concerns and issues, making decisions by
consensus on a substantive Global Action Agenda. More recently I
actively contributed to the Millenium Forum Action Agenda, a
result of the work of 1350 NGO representatives from more than 100
countries meeting in an historic session at the UN in May of 2000.
"Furthermore, my work as a UN NGO representative has given
me access to governmental leaders from all over the world and a
fine-tuned perspective on the role of the United States in
international affairs, "In addition to participating in
Pennsylvania legislative hearings and presentations, I testified
in a legislative session in West Virginia. My published articles
on tax reform are used by legislators in the states of Maryland,
New Jersey, and New York."
Hartzok, additionally, is the founder of Earth Rights Institute,
and is the author of "Financing Local to Global Public Goods:
An Integrated Green Tax Shift Perspective", a policypaper
presented at the Global Institute for Taxation Conference for Tax
Alternatives for the 21st Century, St. John's University, and that
paper has been distributed to the U.S. Congress).
Other of Hartzok's articles have been published in the The
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, in GroundSwell, in
Green Revolution, by the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, and by the
Henry George School of Social Science-New York; and in Land Value
Taxation: The Equitable and Efficient Source of Public Finance, an
anthology edited by Kenneth Wenzer.
Other of Hartzok's credits include administrative experience in
the 1980s as Board President of Northern California Land Trust;
President of Bay Area Common Ground; and as Education Director and
then Associate Director of the Henry George School of Social
Science- San Francisco. In the 1970s she taught at Vista college,
Berkeley, CA and at Marianopolis College, Montreal, Canada.
