For Immediate Release: June 8, 2022
“As New York’s low-income communities and communities of color continue to struggle from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing statewide movement for community wealth-building solutions that ensure a just recovery. This session, our coalition made significant progress towards this end, building widespread support for transformative policies. Unfortunately, Albany lawmakers have concluded their legislative session for the year without moving these needed policies over the finish line.”
“The New York Public Banking Act, among our coalition’s top priorities, paves the way for local governments to leverage public deposits for investments in equitable development. This year we won support for this bill from more than 90 legislative co-sponsors, 150 community and labor groups, and local elected officials from 19 different NYS cities and counties. In the face of opposition from Wall Street lobbyists, the Legislature failed to bring this critical bill to a vote.”
“Struggling New York communities need solutions like public banking, just like they need to see public support for New York’s community development financial institutions – mission-driven credit unions and loan funds that build wealth in Black, brown, immigrant, and low-income neighborhoods. They need tenant protections and legislation to support community land trusts and other forms of permanently affordable housing, especially given the severity of New York’s housing crisis. They need the safeguards against systemic wealth extraction set forth in the Consumer and Small Business Protection Act.”
The NYS Community Equity Agenda, a statewide coalition of community and labor organizations, remains committed to a bold vision of economic development that works for all New Yorkers. We will continue to organize through the next legislative session in 2023 and beyond to ensure that New York invests in a future rooted in economic democracy, ecological sustainability, and racial and social justice.”
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