Alanna Hartzok, the Green Party candidate for the state's 9th Congressional District, spoke to a crowd of about 20 students and community members yesterday afternoon in Boucke Building during a lecture sponsored by the Campus Greens.

Hartzok, who is a candidate in the May 15 special election to fill Bud Shuster's vacated seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke of Earth rights and the wealth gap in relation to Green taxes.

"With Green taxes we're saying what you work for is your private individual property and the government shouldn't take that away from you," Hartzok said.

Hartzok stressed there are economic viewpoints that are not taught on college campuses, in particular those touted by the Henry George Foundation of which Hartzok is a student. The views of both focus on the fact that all Americans have a birthright to the Earth and in this, should share it equally.

Humans have a common heritage, Hartzok said, which entitles them to the earth and its resources — at the same time, she stressed the right to private property, which she defined as "that which we make through our individual labor."

The Pennsylvania Green taxes work well for urban areas, such as Harrisburg and Allentown, where they are starting to be applied.

The plan takes property taxes off homes, which are considered private property, and switches them over to the land these buildings and homes are built on, Hartzok said.

"The incentive here is to put that land to good use and make a profit," she said.

In addition to students, Libertarian activist Julian Heicklen and last year's Green Party candidate for the 77th State House District, John Stith, were in attendance.

Stith, who said he has previously spoken with Hartzok concerning her positions on this issue, said lectures such as these help members of the party create platform cohesion.

"The Green Party is relatively new and these types of discussions are how we figure out our own platform," Stith said. "We're kind of trying to find out from each other a third way, not just a conservative or liberal way."

Heicklen showed support for Hartzok's program during the lecture, stating her ideas were not far from a Libertarian viewpoint — Hartzok mentioned several times the need for a re-evaluation of the wealth gap, stating at one point about 300 people hold as much wealth as three billion others combined.

"We need a relationship between humans and the planet itself — this relationship needs to be set up justly and fairly," she said. "I believe we can do it and I believe we are finding out the key ways to do it."

The land tax is also pay-for-use, Hartzok said, which equalizes the right to land and to labor. However, she said in order for the tax to work it must be applied globally.

"We must ask (questions like) who owns the Earth, who owns our communities and how much are they worth," she said.

Members of the Campus Greens, who organized the visit from Hartzok, were also in attendance at the lecture. Some members found Hartzok's presentation refreshing.

"It's nice to hear about a topic that is put simplistically," said member Jon Grindell (junior-telecommunications).

Green Party issues are generally easy to grasp, agreed Jesse Wilberding (freshman-environmental ethics), another Campus Greens member in attendance.

"In general, it's very easy to understand and accept a lot of the policies (the party supports)," he said

Hartzok, a United Nations representative for the International Union for Land Value Taxation, recently returned from the United Kingdom where she presented some of these ideas to the Greater London Authority, supported this claim as she ended the presentation.

"The bottom line here is that without a birthright to the Earth, you can die . . . you'd have no job and no place to live — it is the democratic right, the moral and ethical right of each individual to the planet."