May
2021
19
New Economy Project founder and co-director Sarah Ludwig discusses a new state law protecting stimulus checks from debt collectors and makes the case for legislation enabling New York municipalities to create public banks.
May
2021
18
“The NYS Senate leadership missed a crucial opportunity to bring about a just recovery, when it suddenly removed the NY Public Banking Act from today’s Banks Committee agenda—despite Wall Street’s long legacy of extracting wealth from communities and redlining Black and brown neighborhoods.
May
2021
13
“Thanks to this important legislation, debt collectors are now prohibited from siphoning New Yorkers’ COVID-19 stimulus payments. The new law ensures that federal relief funds actually provide relief to New Yorkers, not windfalls for the debt collection industry. New Economy Project is proud to have worked on this crucial bill with ally organizations, as we continue the fight for racial and economic justice and a just recovery for all New Yorkers.”
May
2021
7
The NYS Legislature has just passed a critical bill that prohibits debt collectors from taking New Yorkers’ stimulus payments. The bill will ensure that relief funds actually provide relief—not windfalls for the debt collection industry. Take Action! Urge Governor Cuomo to sign this bill into law, to protect New Yorkers from financial predation and ensure a just recovery. Call […]
May
2021
6
Gotham Gazette — In recent memory public banking was an idea that belonged either to a distant utopian future or a distant populist past. But today, not only is public banking on the agenda of major New York politicians, but competing visions of public banking are on offer.
May
2021
5
Community land trusts (CLTs) are on the rise across New York State, working to give communities control over land and housing. New Economy Project recently organized a virtual learning exchange for NYC Community Land Initiative members and two of our upstate CLT neighbors: City Roots CLT, in Rochester, and the Fruit Belt CLT, in Buffalo.
May
2021
3
Capital Tonight — For decades, many banks in the U.S. denied mortgages to people of color based strictly on race or the neighborhood where they lived. The practice, which started in the 1930s, was called red-lining and it was backed by the U.S. government. It’s one of the reasons that black families lost out on the wealth accumulation that white families have leveraged for the past 90 years.
April
2021
30
Spectrum News — Consumer groups are applauding a bill that is meant to keep debt collectors from garnishing the stimulus payments and other direct aid approved by the federal government to offset the financial strain created by the pandemic.
April
2021
29
“We applaud Senator Kevin Thomas, Assemblymember Helene E. Weinstein and the entire NYS Legislature for taking bold legislative action to exempt from collection all COVID-19 stimulus relief payments…”
April
2021
29
City Limits — The City Council’s finance committee took up a slate of bills Wednesday that aim to increase public transparency around where the city does its banking—what advocates say would be the “first key steps” towards starting a public bank in New York City.