ALBANY COUNTY — Daniel Plaat is running for county executive on the Green Party line not because he thinks he can win but because he wants to make a difference.

The county has just 518 voters enrolled in the Green Party out of a total of 173,508 registered voters. But Plaat is hopeful he can draw more votes than just those of Green Party members.

He went on, “My message is sharing power, not taking power. We need to have democratic reforms.”

Plaat, 27, is an Albany native who describes himself as a second-generation activist. His father, he said, “helped to save the Pine Bush.”

He has a degree in architecture, with a minor in history, from The City College of New York and works a seasonal job now with the State Education Department. “I spent six years learning to look at the big picture,” he said.

After participating in Occupy Wall Street, Plaat said, “I came home with the idea of getting Albany on the right path; it takes political activism.”

Plaat went on, “It’s about informing people to think about voting for the greater good rather than the lesser evil.”

His platform includes educating people about a cooperative economy, community-controlled police, and countywide planning.

On heroin, he said, “It’s important to point out the heroin epidemic has broad causes” and it should be treated “as a health issue rather than one of criminality.”

“It has to be decriminalized,” said Plaat. “People are afraid to get help.”

He also said it is important to “increase the liberty [people have] to put things in their own body.”

On consolidation, Plaat said, “A lot of highway budgets come from the state.” Centralizing resources, he said, “shouldn’t mean a lack of freedom for those at the bottom.”

He suggested citizens could offer solutions on how to spend money, participating in planning and budgeting rather than having “a bureaucrat deciding for others.”

About suburban poverty, Plaat said, “This goes to the destruction and erosion of the middle class….We need good wages for trades and we need to build a cooperative economy.”

A cooperative economy would be worker controlled where “workers are empowered,” he said.

Plaat went on, describing the views of empowered workers, “It’s your job…You’re not going to ship it out, or leave it if taxes go up. Make your job as desirable as you want it to be.”

He also urged, “Have a public bank.” A public bank, he said, would give people “access to capital.” Now, he said, as a student he couldn’t qualify for a student loan.

A public bank, he said, would offer low-interest loans. When the loan was paid back, the money would go back to citizens,” he said. A state bank in North Dakota, Plaat said, offers protection from recessions.

“We need to go bold,” said Plaat. “We need to think of the economy as an abundance rather than as scarcity.”

He concluded, “It’s within our legal means to create our own wealth, investing in the people who live here and stay here.”

On veterans, Plaat said, “A centralized facility is OK,” but he went on, “If it’s in one place, all the veterans have to get there. If you’re homeless, just getting down the block is a problem.”

Plaat went on, “My approach for curing poverty is a basic income guarantee.”

He suggested $1,200 per month for every adult. “Start with the homeless population,” he said.

County money now is being spent on shelters that the homeless “don’t like to use,” Plaat said. He asked, “Why not just give them the money?”

Plaat cited a pilot program in London that gave money to the homeless. “They started going to work and got on their feet,” he said. “They had more happiness. That is the metric I’d use…what is making people happy.”

On caring for the elderly, Plaat said, “A public nursing home is good provided the workers are paid well and those who go there enjoy it.”

He went on, “Home care is also a must. It’s good to have a diversity of choices…maybe a county assisted-living facility.”

Plaat said, “It’s all about what people need.”

He concluded, “Use consensus to work out how much goes to who…I’m offering a challenge of mindset…facilitators of  what we want rather than managers of what the law requires. As an activist, I care about everyone.”

About wages, Plaat said, “On the face of it, local control is part of the Green Party platform.”

Plaat himself now earns $12 an hour, which he can live on, he said, adding, “I don’t have children.”

He believes minimum wage should be $18.50 or $20 — “what a family of four with two parents working could live on comfortably.”

Plaat also said, “Wal-Mart can pay $25 per hour and still make millions but the bodega on the corner has a different circumstance; they have a debt to pay…That’s where it gets mucky and complicated.”

He suggested “maybe a minimum wage for multi-national corporations.”

On county laws forbidding such things as toxic toys and Styrofoam, Plaat said, “They can reduce suffering if they’re enforced. It’s a worthwhile concern…It’s more about sending a message to higher levels of government.”

Plaat also said, “A fundamental change in our economy would make debate between regulation and non-regulation moot. You have to make an economy more humanitarian.”

Plaat does not support the revised county charter. “The main reason is the legislature retains all the powers in regulating itself,” which he finds “in conflict with doing things in the public interest.”

He went on, “It needs other reforms.” Plaat cited, for example, opt-out voter registration. He also urged, “Have ranked choice ballots for candidates...That will allow people to vote for Green.”

The county’s moves to regulate oil tankers, Plaat said are “absolutely appropriate.”

“I can go further with any fossil fuel structure,” he said, mentioning the “the fracked gas pipeline going through the county.”

He sees this as “a promise we’ll burn fossil fuels well into the future.” Plaat calls this “unconscionable, with climate change rolling over us.”

On regulating the oil tankers, he recommended, “Impose a fee per car. They’re putting our county at risk.” The money from the fees could be spent to good purpose, he said, concluding, “We need to have the resources to shift to renewable energy.”

Plaat concluded with an emailed comment: “I became a Green because to be it is an independent voice for new politics and a county free from corporate and institutional domination,” he wrote. “That puts people, planet and peace before profit. The platform offered is a Green way forward that opens the possibility for a county ruled by people and not money.

“It is because I am no longer an idealist that I am an activist, angry with the way of doing things that nearly destroyed Albany to benefit some, and plans to rebuild it to benefit some. That shrugs its shoulders as our farms closed shop and our lands are paved, our river polluted. We all need a real choice for the 21st Century; the future we want is in our own hands.”