July
2024
18
New Economy Project strongly supports the CFPB’s proposed rule cracking down on predatory payday loans, marketed through Earned Wage Access (EWA) phone apps. Financial technology (or fintech) companies use these insidious apps to prey on low-wage workers – peddling debt trap loans with interest rates as high as 300% or more.
June
2024
18
The City — The City Council is resurrecting a system to collect unpaid property taxes after a nearly three-year hiatus, adding new safeguards for vulnerable owners.
June
2024
18
American City and County — Legislation currently under consideration could pave the way for Rochester, N.Y., to establish its own public bank, the first of its kind in New York State.
June
2024
7
News10 NBC — It is the 11th hour. State legislators were likely drinking caffeine by the gallon Friday night as they tried to get bills passed before the session ended. One of those bills would establish a public bank in Rochester. It’s a concept I shared with you on Tuesday, and supporters say it would be the vehicle through which the more people of color could get loans.
May
2024
29
NYN Media — The Legislature is poised to approve a groundbreaking bill that would bring public banking to New York – a major step toward building a just, transparent, and accountable financial system. Lawmakers must not waver in the face of inevitable backlash from the banking lobby.
May
2024
15
Spectrum News — Tousif Ahsan, Public Banking Campaign Organizer at New Economy Project, talks to Spectrum News about the potential of public banking in New York.
May
2024
15
New York State of Politics — A push is on to introduce public banking in New York state, and start the trend in Rochester. While a bill to allow municipalities to start their own public banks has floated around for several years, a focus on the Flower City is gaining traction.
April
2024
12
The City — With Mayor Eric Adams’ administration and the City Council in talks to revive a controversial property tax-collection program that died more than two years ago, some community advocates are pushing to keep the tax lien sales system in the ground.
March
2024
29
New York should pass the Consumer and Small business Protection Act as an urgent matter of racial and economic justice, writes Susan Shin, New Economy Project’s Legal Director, and Claudia Wilner, director of litigation and advocacy at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
March
2024
18
How would you like to own your apartment after years of renting? The East New York Community Land Trust bought a 21-unit, rent-stabilized apartment building on Arlington Avenue for just over $3 million late last month and plans to help tenants convert to co-op units in the coming years.