Campaign exposes theft of city funds

What you don’t know can kill you. Claiming a budget deficit, New York City Mayor Bloomberg, a multibillionaire, is waging war against city workers and every human service we need and deserve. There really is plenty of dough. The problem is that the NYC government acts as a collection agency for taxpayer dollars and hands it over to Wall Street and real estate developers.

City officials have created many ways to steal the public treasury. While the theft of our funds is outrageous, big business media never report on it, so workers are kept in the dark.

The Bail Out the People Movement is spearheading a national demand for a public jobs program. Its Jobs for All Campaign is taking on this fight in NYC where close to 1 million people are unemployed or underemployed. On June 3 it will be “attending” a hearing of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

What is the EDC and why should I care?

The EDC has a master contract with NYC that is renewed every year. In this contract the city allows the EDC to collect all revenues generated by the rental of city-owned properties and the sale of city-owned land. That revenue is close to $1 billion a year. The EDC must turn over only about 8 percent of that to the city itself.

The EDC then takes that money and hands it over to real estate developers and private corporations for projects they want. They give outright grants of money; sell land worth millions for peanuts; arrange low-interest loans or interest deferred loans; and raise bonds for these developments with low utility rates and tax abatements. With a staff of 400 people, the EDC maneuvers 24/7 to gentrify and destroy our communities in every corner of the city. The interest paid to banks on the bonds they arrange are triple tax-exempt from federal, state and city taxes.

The EDC’s hand is behind every development project benefiting real estate empires and banks from Harlem to Chinatown. They boast of 100 projects they are working on right now.

The EDC is made up of a board of 27 people from Wall Street, real estate companies and the law firms that represent them. It is appointed by Bloomberg.

EDC even steals the 8 percent

What gives the mayor the right to sign a master contract with these thieves that take our funds and allow these profit-swollen bandits to not pay taxes? Nothing.

As if this is not bad enough, it gets worse. NYC City Comptroller John Liu, who is elected, has just charged the EDC with failing to turn over $125 million to the city budget under the master contract.

The NYC Jobs for All Campaign is demanding this money be turned over immediately to create 66,000 summer jobs for youth. The summer youth jobs program has been cut down to 17,000 jobs from last year’s 56,000. Even this is pathetic. A secret lottery determines who gets the jobs. Last year over 150,000 high school-age youth applied. That is only a fraction of NYC youth who have been locked out of jobs.

In African-American and Latino/a communities youth unemployment is as high as 70 percent, which amounts to economic racist genocide. The campaign says, “Jobs and education, not jails and war.”

The campaign is also demanding the cancellation of the master contract, which the city can do with 90 days’ notice to the EDC. All the properties and funds held by this shadow government of bankers and real estate developers should be returned to the workers of NYC for the good of our communities. These funds and properties belong to us. The June 3 protest will begin a fight that says: “No jobs, no business as usual.” To join this fight, contact the Jobs for All Campaign at 212-633-6646.

The writer is an organizer with the NYC Jobs for All Campaign.