Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Democratic Queens Assembly Member David Weprin, candidate for NYC Comptroller, today announced that if elected, he’s committed to opening a Comptroller Office in each of the five boroughs.
The goal is to provide individuals and small businesses in financially underserved communities easier access to economic opportunities, financial institutions, and small business relief assistance.
“A major part of improving the City’s fiscal health is making sure economic opportunities are available to all New Yorkers, no matter their background,” said David Weprin. “These borough offices will serve as community economic empowerment centers where working and middle-class New Yorkers can improve their financial literacy, gain access to financial institutions and increase their access to economic opportunity. This is particularly crucial in low-income and immigrant communities that have historically been financially underserved.”
The pandemic has only served to widen the service gaps for some New Yorkers when it comes to education, employment and career advancement, and basis needs. It’s been especially difficult for the more than one million City households that are unbanked, which means they have no bank account, or underbanked, where they have a bank account but use alternative financial products for some of their banking needs, and many times are taken advantage of by exorbitant non-bank fees.
By opening these borough offices, Weprin wants to ensure residents of minority, immigrant, and low-income neighborhoods, many of whom are unbanked and underbanked, aren’t left behind as the City begins to dig itself out from the financial losses brought about by the pandemic.
Weprin is the only candidate running for Comptroller with the necessary municipal financial experience, having balanced the City’s budget as Chair of the City Council’s Finance Committee for eight consecutive years. He guided the City’s finances through the post-9/11 recession and the 2008 recession. He was also the chair of the Subcommittee on Banking in Underserved Communities.
Previously in his public service career, Weprin served as the Deputy Superintendent of Banks and Secretary of the Banking Board for New York State, where he was a watchdog of nearly $2 trillion, regulating more than 3,000 financial institutions and financial service firms in New York State, including international banking institutions, mortgage brokers, and mortgage bankers.
Weprin is currently Chair of the New York State Assembly’s Committee on Correction, where he has championed critical legislation reforming our criminal justice system. He has authored groundbreaking legislation including the Adoptee Bill of Rights and the Religious Garb Bill and has made standing up for middle class New Yorkers a central theme of his campaign for Comptroller.
In a testament to Weprin’s record and the work he’ll do as Comptroller, he has earned the most diverse set of endorsements of any candidate in this race, including: U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi (Queens), NYS Assembly Members Michael Benedetto (Bronx), Dick Gottfried (Manhattan), Rebecca Seawright (Manhattan), Vivian Cook (Queens), Jenifer Rajkumar (Queens), Jeff Aubry (Queens), Cathy Nolan (Queens), Maritza Davilla (Brooklyn), Bill Colton (Brooklyn), Stacey Pheffer Amato (Queens), NYC Council Members Karen Koslowitz (Queens), Barry Grodenchik (Queens), Peter Koo (Queens), the NYS Court Officers Association, William Kregler, President of the NYC Fire Marshals Benevolent Association, former Congress Member Steve Israel, the former Chair of the DCCC who represented part of Queens in the House of Representatives, former NYS Lt. Governor Richard Ravitch, former New York Attorney General G. Oliver Koppell, and Manhattan’s East River Democratic Club.
Weprin is a graduate of Jamaica High School, SUNY at Albany, and holds a law degree from Hofstra University. A father of five children, and grandfather of six, David and his wife, Ronni, live in Holliswood, Queens.
