George Pataki needs to be turned out of office this Fall

Governor George Pataki agrees with Joseph Strasburg, President of the Rent Stabilization Association, the premier landlord lobbying organization, which arranged the donation of hundreds of thousands of dollars to foes of rent regulation in the Great 1997 Rent Battle. Although tenants won the continuation of rent regulations, they will lose the war because Pataki will rip the guts out of controls and enforcement if he is re-elected governor this coming November. He is already doing it. After ramming through the permanent 20 percent rent increases in the Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997, he is using his agency, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) to erect bureaucratic barriers to tenants who try to complain of overcharges, lack of services, and harassment. DHCR is also administering other changes in the laws that allow broad deregulation of now-affordable apartments and eviction of current tenants with moderate incomes. Pataki's Housing Court policies, requiring the mandatory deposit of rent to get a hearing, ease the eviction of poor and working-class families.

Whatever else you think of Governor Pataki, he has been a disaster for tenants. If he is re-elected, tenants’ rights will erode far more than they already have. Start organizing now against another four years of George Pataki, for the sake of our homes.