Tell NY Gov. Cuomo: Don’t steal the Chase settlement money from struggling New York families and ...

Last year JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $13 billion settlement for their actions that helped create the Great Recession and enabled them to steal thousands of homes from struggling homeowners. $600 million of that goes to New York State and it’s supposed to be used for direct relief for homeowners.

But not if Gov. Cuomo has his way. Instead of helping homeowners, the Governor wants to use that money to pay for a major cut to corporate taxes, including something called The Bank Tax.

That’s right. Gov. Cuomo wants to steal the settlement money from struggling homeowners and give it back to Wall Street criminals.

The foreclosure and underwater crisis is still devastating our communities and the families and communities hardest hit are exactly the ones from which Gov. Cuomo proposes stealing. Recently, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was able to use $136 million from a previous settlement to help thousands of families stave off foreclosure. We need the $600 million to alleviate the continuing pain.

This pain, which has affected almost every neighborhood, has not, however, been spread around evenly. Communities of color lost the most when Chase and other Wall Street bankers pushed us into the Great Recession – the median black household lost almost 84% of its household wealth in the recession. Latinos lost 66%, while white households lost some 34%. Now Gov. Cuomo wants to keep it that way.

I know by now that nothing related to Wall Street and elected officials should shock me. But the pure callousness behind this proposal caught me off guard. And if we let Gov. Cuomo get away with this, then Governors across the United States will think they can use this money for their pet projects or to pay off Wall Street criminals too. We can’t let that happen.

Tell Gov. Cuomo: Don’t steal the Chase settlement money from struggling New York families and give it back to Wall Street criminals.