Mark Glogowski, Libertarian Candidate

Assembly District 139

Platform

Preamble:

From our nation’s birth, the inalienable rights of every human being, rights endowed by our Creator, have been identified as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The primary purpose of government is to secure these inalienable rights for each individual.

The inalienable rights are rights that every individual can claim simply by virtue of being a human being. In exercising those inalienable rights each individual has the responsibility of respecting the inalienable rights of others. Material needs such as food, running water, housing, clothing, and health care are not inalienable rights rained down from the Creator. They are the rewards one enjoys by being a part of a developed society. Meeting the material needs of each individual can best be achieved by protecting property rights and creating incentives for each individual to pursue their needs through free enterprise. The dignity of the individual is established by the freedom of belief, and a stable society is established by society providing the liberty to practice one’s beliefs in a manner that does not harm another and does not infringe on the rights of others to have the liberty to do the same. Moral teachings and the development of an instinct towards charity comes from the voluntary participation by individuals in the institutions of family, education, religion, and government. These are essential features of a stable society.

In pursuit of the many goals I have established to be pursued during my term in office, I affirm that my platform for office shall be:

1. No Victim, No Crime: There should be no law making an action a crime when there is no victim. No one should be prosecuted for any action for which no other person has been harmed in any fashion, and especially where there has been an expression of mutual consent, such as sex work and drug use. There should be no law that makes possession of any item a crime.
2. The Right of Conscience – Individuals have the right to believe what they desire, live their lives in accordance with their own values, and practice their own faith and religion as long as they do not impose their beliefs, values, and practices on others and do not interfere with others to enjoy the same rights.
3. Parents Rights – Parents have the right to raise and educate their children as they see fit, and recognize that children develop rights gradually as they approach the age of majority, except for cases of physical abuse or neglect.
4. Education – Reintroduce the local diploma, allowing students to graduate from public high school and homeschool without taking a Regents Examinations. Support local educators who know their students, their needs, and their circumstances. Eliminate the one size fits all universal statewide standards, including Common Core, which should be an option, not a mandate. Teachers, students, and parents should have control over curricula and learning standards. Parents should have the right to send their children to any nearby public school of their choosing, or private, or charter, or homeschool without incurring government-imposed costs. The barriers to homeschooling should be eliminated. Vocational training should be made available to both high schools and homeschools. Financial consideration should be given to parents that choose to homeschool their children.
5. Reducing Tax Burdens: Abolish the state income tax and real estate taxes. Support the offset of those taxes with a sales tax, and oppose the creation of any new tax unless another tax is reduced by an equal or greater amount.
6. Promoting Private Charity: Voluntary, charitable, non-governmental, civic organizations should be supported and promoted as a mechanism to provide for the less fortunate. Eventually, those institutions should replace state-run welfare agencies.
7. Maximize Healthcare Competition: Oppose government-provided, single-payer healthcare, and support efforts that encourage private competition at every level of the healthcare industry.
8. Marijuana Decriminalization: Fully decriminalize marijuana and hemp products, including cultivation, processing, distribution, sales, possession, and transportation.
9. Family Law Reform: The family law and the family court system should be reformed to ensure both parents receive the justice for which they are entitled. The creation by an ex-spouse or an attorney of intentionally false accusations or conspiring to falsely cast (frame) an ex-spouse as an unworthy parent should be treated as a felony. There should be a requirement of evidence to substantiate any and all claims against an ex-spouse. Should the two parents, despite their differences, prove to be loving parents toward their children, the children should receive the benefit of equal time with their parents.
10. Emergencies: Government responses to extended emergencies, including pandemics, should be localized as much as possible; one-size-fits-all solutions have little benefit for sparsely-populated regions of the state. Actions at the state level should be initiated by the legislature following extensive committee hearings, not by executive orders. Violations of executive orders should not warrant draconian punishments, such as the revocation of business licenses, without due process. Government information released should be complete and unredacted.
11. Personal Freedoms During Emergencies: The First Amendment rights of free association and human interaction should not be abrogated. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, even during government-declared emergencies, should be suggestions, not mandates. People who wish to engage in commerce, worship, and social interaction and who are willing to assume any associated risk, must be free to do so without threat of harm or punishment by the government.
12. End Taxpayer Financing of Campaigns: Rescind the newly enacted NYS taxpayer campaign fund.
13. Deregulate Small Campaign Contribution Limits: Make the limits on election campaign contributions uniform across all election districts and eliminate the limits on election campaign contributions by an individual – keep the requirement the candidate report contributions per individual with full transparency.
14. Removing Licensing Burdens: Eliminate government licensing requirements and accompanying fees and other barriers that prevent entry into the workforce, especially licensing related to such mundane everyday activities such as hair braiding, shining shoes, mowing lawns, clipping toenails, etc..
15. Decriminalizing Unregistered Guns: Removal of the requirement to register guns owned by residents of the State of New York; remove the requirement for residents to have a permit to own a pistol and a license to conceal-carry; until the license and permit laws are rescinded, reclassify the current charge of a failure to register a gun, from a ‘violent felony’ to a ticketed violation.
16. Deregulate Higher Education: Reduce regulations on higher education that force colleges and universities to raise tuition to cover the high cost of compliance.
17. Equal Protection Under the Law: Every person should have equal protection under the law. Laws and policies that have a disparate effect on the people of color need to be repealed. End the war on drugs, stop the enforcement of victimless crimes.
18. Re-establish sanity in NYS Government –
    1. Re-establish County representation in the NYS Assembly
    2. End the use of the NYS Budget process to pass legislation.
    3. Create a Balance Budget requirement and give the Governor and both the Assembly and Senate the ability to review the budget bills passed and to use a line-item veto to establish a balanced budget without raising taxes.
    4. Create laws that encourage pro-choice/pro-life options, move away from the extreme pro-life versus pro-abortion stance. Offer options for people to provide both pre-birth and after birth care, and relax regulations covering surrogate mothers, adoption, and infant care. Eliminate the involvement of Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs) and other government agencies in the development of businesses, and eliminate the issuing of grants of taxpayer money to companies and organizations. Remove the ability of IDAs to override Town and County legislative decisions, end all “payments in lieu of Taxes” (PILOT) offerings, end the continual Grant Charade Parade, which creates an elite group of individuals and companies that do not have to pay taxes.