Chris Rabb - State Representative for the 200th

LONGFORM QUESTIONS

What do you value most about the district you are running to represent and why do you want to represent it in Harrisburg as State Representative/State Senator?

My district is made up by the top 3 voter turn-out political wards in Philadelphia, and we boast the largest number of registered Democrats of any district across the state.

My district is not just nightly civically engaged, it is a district composed of very different neighborhoods with their own cultures and histories. And while that’s not necessarily a good thing — particularly when those different sets of neighbors don’t interact, I love the challenge and responsibility to find common cause between those groups and live in a rare, long-standing racially integrated neighborhood in a deeply segregated city and nation.

Do you regard basic needs of Pennsylvanians, including food, housing, health care, and education, as human rights or as commodities most efficiently distributed by economic markets? How would this look in a truly just world? How would you begin to fight for that world in your first 100 days in office?

I believe all these things should be considered human rights by government.

In a just world, there would be a market-based economy with key elements of society walled off from private ownership or profit.

The inherent irony of capitalism is that it doesn’t produce more capitalists — it concentrates capital among fewer and fewer people.

We need shared prosperity via democratic community economics founded on social equity and environmental sustainability.

I have authored and have worked on various bills to this effect over the past 3 years, from full funding for our public schools, state-based reparations for systemic racism, criminal justice reform, a just transition toward 100% renewable energy, public banking, abolishing corporate giveaways, police accountability reforms and innovations in promoting community safety & taxing personal wealth.

In recent years, Pennsylvania has had enormous trouble passing a budget. What are your budgetary priorities, what revenue sources would you seek, and how would you move these measures through the Republican-dominated legislature?

My budgetary priorities include passing substantial overhauls to Pennsylvania’s economy so that we can transition to green jobs and renewable energy. I will introduce carbon pricing legislation to generate recurring revenue for our state budget, as well as legislation creating a state-owned bank that would facilitate large-scale, capital-intensive public projects related to infrastructure, broadband, public education, public pensions, public transportation, cannabis commercialization and agriculture.

Philadelphia remains the most impoverished major city and about 75% of our residents lack bachelor's degrees. What policies would you implement to ensure that decent, high-paying jobs created here are accessible to the majority of our population, not just the relatively well-educated and already well off?

We need to provide the highest quality public education irrespective of the zip codes in which families live. Thus, we need to overhaul how and what we teach and how that education is funded. That also means we need to provide free and affordable public college and vocational/tech education along with apprenticeships in various fields and ensure that racial and gender equity is deeply rooted in all these ladders of opportunity. These educational opportunities must be linked to a growing proportion of employers who provide long-lasting, family sustaining green jobs.

A higher proportion of the jobs should be unionized or provided in democratic workplaces such as worker cooperatives, and the percent of scalable businesses with payrolls should mirror the diversity of our city and state. Thus, without a growing, inclusive and community-centered entrepreneurial sector, innovation toward shared prosperity will simply not occur as it should.

What policies would you introduce and/or sponsor to expand and strengthen the labor movement in Pennsylvania? How would you fortify existing unions in the event of a state or nationwide right-to-work law? How would you expand worker representation and power in sectors with low union density?

The only way Pennsylvania will be a labor-friendly state is by having a majority of pro-union legislators in both chambers and strong advocate as governor — with help from an independent judiciary that values working women and men.

However, we also need more popular education around the importance of unions for society as a whole.

Lastly, union leadership should reflect the collective values of its diverse constituencies and commit to reforms and innovations that modernize their operations and governance to make them more effective, inclusive and equitable.

Philadelphia’s immigrant communities are threatened by increased ICE deportation efforts, police brutality and misconduct, and discriminatory treatment by our criminal justice system. What will you do to ensure that Pennsylvania residents are safe from ICE?

In 2017, I introduced legislation to prohibit Pennsylvania law enforcement agencies – or other state-funded entities – from cooperating with ICE without a court order.

I have also introduced legislation to shut down Berks County Detention Center which operates under ICE’s purview to cage undocumented children and their parents.

I was the first member of the Philadelphia delegation to visit this site.

I will also be introducing legislation to make eligible for drivers licenses undocumented Pennsylvanians, as was recently enacted into law in New York.

What is your opinion on privatized infrastructure and/or public–private partnerships for development or maintenance of public infrastructure, such as roads and water works?

Philosophically, I am opposed to privatization, and am skeptical of many so-called “public-private” partnerships. I would much prefer public-civic partnerships where relationships are built between governments and entities that are not profit-centered.

I am excited to be continuing my work on legislation that would allow for public banking across Pennsylvania in municipalities and/or regional networks thereof to reduce Wall Street’s stranglehold on public projects that could radically improve public infrastructure inclusive of cannabis cultivation, public school construction, smart grid modernization, and other large-scale renewable energy projects.

Pennsylvania faces a rental housing crisis. According to the 2017 American Community Survey, 22.3% of Pennsylvania homeowners are cost-burdened and 44.8% of Pennsylvania renters are cost-burdened. Given the housing crisis in Pennsylvania in general, and in Philadelphia in particular, what meaningful measures will you take and push for so that all residents have access to safe, affordable housing?

It is a sad irony that one of the biggest crises in Pennsylvania and the nation — the affordable housing crisis — doesn’t have a standing committee in the PA General Assembly that primarily focuses on this urgent matter.

Housing should be a right and the housing privilege of the few should not be allowed to destabilize the housing necessity of the many. This is why I am working on legislation to provide incentives for the construction of more green, affordable housing and promotion of community land trusts that are powerful tools to fight gentrification.

Given the reality of the climate crisis, do you support a Green New Deal (GND) for Pennsylvania? If so, please outline how you will craft this, what would be included, and how adaptation measures for communities most impacted will be centered.

Of the over 40 bills I’ve introduced in my first 3 years in office, my most popular piece of legislation is the one that provides a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Without ambitious, evidence-based milestones and a formal plan to meet or exceed those goals, we will not materially combat the climate crisis, nor create a 21st Century economy, let alone a habitable planet for future generations.

We must also make Pennsylvania’s biggest corporate polluters pay their fair share of the emissions they produce. That’s why I will be introducing a carbon pricing bill that will also create a new recurring stream of revenue to further our state’s climate resilience.

These are at least two core elements of any Green New Deal I would support if introduced as a legislative package in our state.

What measures can be taken by the Pennsylvania legislature to put an end to overpolicing, militarization of police, police brutality, and lack of police accountability, especially in black and brown communities that are unfairly and disproportionately targeted? How would you support these measures?

I have proposed and will continue to introduce measures to reverse the history of discrimination against Black and brown communities through over-policing and law enforcement that acts with impunity.

I have worked to change police rules of engagement, create mechanisms for police accountability including, through elected review boards, and defended progressive District Attorneys in Pennsylvania seeking to end mass incarceration despite legislative efforts to remove their jurisdiction. I have also proposed first response alternatives to 911 focused on establishing mental health experts as first responders.

YES OR NO QUESTIONS

1. Will you support legislation to provide universal child and elder care for Pennsylvanians? Yes

2. Will you support legislation for single-payer health care that covers all individuals, regardless of documentation status? Yes

3. The average student loan debt in Pennsylvania is $33,935, one of the highest in the country. Will you support legislation to make the PASSHE system and Commonwealth colleges tuition and fee free and provide cost of living stipends to students who are residents of Pennsylvania? Yes

4. Do you support a moratorium on all new charter schools? Yes

5. Do you support the use of public school vouchers to pay for private school tuition? No

6. Should all state educational revenue streams be funneled through the Fair Funding Formula for our public schools? Yes

7. Do you support the Keystone Opportunity Zone program? Yes

8. Do you support tax breaks to lure or retain businesses? No

9. Do you support the use of eminent domain by corporations and businesses? No

10. Do you support a ban on fracking in Pennsylvania? Yes

11. Will you support legislation to mandate that pensions increase each year to match with the average increase in cost of living expenses? Yes

12. Will you commit to introducing/sponsoring legislation to expand Medicaid to fully fund medically assisted treatment, mental health, and community-based programs to support people struggling with addictions and their families in Philadelphia? Yes

13. Do you support the permanent loss of a distribution license as the penalty for overproduction and overprescription of opioids? Yes

14. Will you support legislation to ensure that medically assisted treatment is readily available to people who are incarcerated? Yes

15. Will you commit to supporting safe-consumption sites in Pennsylvania? Yes

16. From the moment a landlord files a claim in landlord-tenant court, a tenant is saddled with an eviction record that makes it nearly impossible to obtain safe and decent housing. This is true regardless of the outcome of an eviction claim. Will you support legislation to:

a. Expunge all eviction records that do not result in a judgment against the tenant? Yes

b. Seal all open eviction cases upon satisfaction of the judgment? Yes

c. Expunge all eviction records five (5) years from the day of filing? Yes

17. Will you support legislation to create a state-wide tenant bill of rights, including but not limited to a right to legal counsel, full funding for tenant legal aid, and just cause eviction laws? Yes

18. Will you support legislation to enact rent control in Pennsylvania, limiting yearly increases in rent to 3% (including in the case of vacancies). Yes

19. Do you commit to enshrining in law employment and discrimination protections for the LGBTQIA+ and immigrant communities? Yes

20. Will you support an end to the death penalty in all cases? Yes

21. Will you support an end to all felony disenfranchisement in Pennsylvania, in accordance with the laws in Maine and Vermont? Yes

22. Will you support the decriminalization of sex work, for both sex workers and patrons? Yes

23. Will you commit to protecting reproductive rights, by supporting an end to the Hyde Amendment? Yes