News & Events
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100+ Community And Labor Groups Back Groundbreaking Bill To Make Public Banking A Reality In New York
Today, more than 100 community, labor, and cooperative groups and community development financial institutions from across New York State delivered a letter to state legislative leaders, urging swift passage of the “New York Public Banking Act” (S1762A/A5782) as an urgent strategy to advance racial equity and ensure a just recovery for all New Yorkers.
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How the MTA Targets Poor New Yorkers of Color to Collect on Old, Alleged Debts (Even During the Pandemic)
The pandemic has placed the MTA at the center of the news, but its violations of New Yorkers’ civil rights have gone on for years. Through our NYC Financial Justice Hotline, New Economy Project has helped dozens of New Yorkers presenting the same disturbing facts: Without any notice, MTA took their tax refunds to pay…
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NYC Council Lays Groundwork to Abolish Giuliani-Era Lien Sale
The City Council has passed legislation charting the course for ending New York City’s tax lien sale, and replacing it with an equitable municipal debt collection system that preserves affordable housing and stabilizes Black and brown NYC neighborhoods.
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Sankofa and Self-Determination: Learning from Seattle’s Africatown CLT
This is the third in a series of reports on exchanges with community land trusts across the U.S. Read more about our visits with CLTs in Boston and California. New Economy Project was thrilled to connect recently with Africatown Community Land Trust in Seattle, WA, to learn about its work on community land ownership as a…
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The City: Council Considers Killing the Tax-Collection Machine Rudy Giuliani Built
The City — New York’s pandemic pause on a program that sells unpaid city property debts to investors has community advocates calling to scrap the Giuliani-era approach altogether.
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ProPublica: Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. Now They’re Coming for More.
ProPublica — Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector.
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Federal Court Certifies Class Action Lawsuit Alleging NYC Transit Authority Seized Tax Refunds to Collect on Decades-Old Default Judgments, Violating Due Process
Yesterday, a federal judge certified a class action charging the NYC Transit Authority, an arm of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), with systemic due process violations. The civil rights lawsuit challenges the Transit Authority’s unlawful seizures of New Yorkers’ state tax refunds to collect on default judgments—some going back 20 years or more—without providing legally-required notice or a fair…
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Fortune: What the Unbanked Need From the 2020 Election
Fortune — Over 6% of Americans—20.5 million people—are unbanked, according to the FDIC’s latest data, meaning they have no checking or savings account. Nearly 50 million more are underbanked: They have at least one bank account but still use alternative financial services like payday loans and check cashers outside the banking system.
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City Limits: Council Bills Could Pave the Way for a Public Bank in NYC
City Limits — The City Council is considering measures that would scrutinize the city’s relationship with corporate banks and other financial entities—disclosures that could pave the pathway to creating a municipal public bank in the future.