Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz Urges His Colleagues to Oppose Any Budget without Rent Control

New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) has released the following statement calling upon all of his Black and Hispanic colleagues in the Senate and in the Assembly to vote against any budget that does not include rent regulation.

“I am calling upon all of my colleagues in the Senate and the Assembly – especially my colleagues who are Black and Hispanic – to refuse to vote for any Budget without rent regulation protection. These protections limit rent and rent hikes that landlords can charge on more than a million apartments in New York.

I urge my colleagues to learn from Senator Liz Krueger, follow her lead and support her one key Budget issue – rent regulations – which are set to expire on June 15, 2011.  We all know that rent regulations effect our constituents, and how essential it is for rent control to be included in the Budget. 

It will be a pure hypocrisy for any Black or Hispanic Senator or Assemblymember to vote for any budget that does not include rent regulations.  A vast majority of our constituents depend on these rent regulation laws, and if we do not address it in this Budget, millions of working and middle-class New Yorkers will be in immediate risk of losing their homes.

We must not let the Governor hijack New York’s Budget and omit rent regulations in it.  Our constituents rely upon us to represent them in Albany, and we must not abandon them.”