District One 10 Point Plan

An initiative to apply many of the best practices in the promotion of participatory democracy, solidarity economy, and sustainable development and combine them with progressive community organizing and electoral politics. The objectives of the District 1 plan are to deepen democracy in Austin and to build a vibrant, people centered solidarity economy in District 1 and throughout the city of Austin that empowers Working Families, Black, Directly Impacted and other oppressed peoples in the state.

Our District 1 Ten Point Plan

1. We believe our DistriCare plan, a pilot universal health care program for East Austin, will eliminate folks being uninsured and underinsured, as well as provide access to healthcare for folks regardless of their immigration, housing or employment status.

With our DistriCare plan service providers would be able to bill one entity. This alone potentially reduces premiums for individuals and by expanding Austin Public Health, we can provide genuine access to equitable health care to folks in District 1. Districare is based on Healthy San Francisco, which has been in effect for over 10 years and costs around $45 million a year.

2. We believe introducing and supporting Municipal Child and Dependent Care Vouchers will reduce the burden on single parent and underemployed households. We also believe cooperatively owned 24hr daycare centers could be an effective option to affordability and convenience.

3. Our belief is that housing is a human right. Approaching fair housing from a policy perspective has not fared well for the folks who are supposed to benefit from such policy efforts. However, we believe by creating permanently fair chance and affordable housing, as opposed to attempting an induction or waiting for naturally occurring affordable housing is the first step.

4. We believe the current iteration of tax freezes and abatement does little for low-income folks and seniors in Austin, who are losing their homes due to an increased tax burden. We believe the first step in reducing taxes in Austin is to reconfigure how our property is assessed. That is not a task we can take on at a local level and must be fought at the State capitol. However, we have the legislative experience and relationships, to work on both sides of the aisle to achieve a more equitable tax revenue system for our city.

5. We believe introducing legislation akin to the National Freedom Cities policies that further inhibit the ability of law enforcement to indiscriminately arrest folks on the basis of immigration status, should be ongoing effort and not just one-off event.

6. We recommend all three- and four-year-olds have access to publicly-funded pre-K, as they do for kindergarten through twelfth grade, and that that pre-K be of a superior standard for quality.

7. We believe we should allocate City and County resources to support the creation, development and expansion of community schools in District 1. The effort would create a school family council, fund Parent/Student Liaisons and provide childhood educators with nationally competitive wages and benefits.

8. We believe the City and Cap Metro must commit to public transportation as a 1st option for District 1 and plan forward from that baseline. We would unequivocally support any effort that increases access to those that rely on public transportation.

9. Our strategy is to introduce legislation that instructs the Austin DA Margaret Moore to stop jailing people who cannot afford to pay cash bail in minor criminal cases. Legislation will give the DA latitude to instruct city prosecutors not to seek a bail payment in misdemeanor and non-violent crimes. For more serious charges, we propose what we are calling ‘Community Bail’, which would allow an organization, faith or treatment community to secure the release of the individual into their care and/or safekeeping.

10. We believe that by forming a District 1 Credit Union, we will provide the residents of our neighborhoods and community with access to financial engagement, literacy, education and ultimately loans and lines of credit. Positioning a district-based credit union as an instrument of front-line community defense against the encroachment of gentrification just makes common sense for us.