Chair thanks and calls next panel; Jerry Maldonado testifies
Chair Williams thanks Donald Clayton and calls the next panel. Jerry Maldonado testifies in support of all four resolutions, connecting Puerto Rico's debt crisis to New York City's own history of austerity.
Thank you.
And I don't know if you pre-registered, if we have your contact, but we'd love to connect with you.
I still don't see Shaki from my office in the audience, but please, if you could share your information with Regina, that would be amazing.
And thank you so much to you for testifying and for being patient and vulnerable and staying with us the last couple of hours.
I appreciate you.
You're welcome.
Okay.
Next panel, Gabrielle, Alice, David, oh, Alice.
Excuse me.
Jerabel?
I said David already.
David Galarza, Jarabel Arroyo, Jerry Maldonado, and Jorge Lopez.
Sorry, yeah.
We said Jorge.
That's you?
Oh.
Whoever wants to start, do your thing.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay.
Hi.
Hello.
Buenas tardes.
Thank you for your perseverance as well.
Oh, no worries.
My name is Jerry Maldonado, and I'm a proud member of the New York Working Families Party and a member of Victoria Ciudadana in Puerto Rico.
I'm here to express my support for all four resolutions, all of which revolve around one central question.
Who gets to decide a community's future?
The people who live there or those who profit from its crisis?
Resolutions 27 and 28 get to the heart of the matter, calling for an end to the fiscal control board and the passage of legislation to hold Wall Street hedge funds accountable.
Over the last decade, the Fiscal Control Board's policies have contributed to the closure of more than 400 public schools, the privatization of the island's energy grid, and deep cuts to the island's water infrastructure.
The results have been catastrophic, with hundreds of thousands of families like mine suffering from rolling blackouts and water shortages on a regular basis, putting their health and well-being at risk.
New York City has a moral obligation to act.
As the Bronx burned in the 1970s,
Black and Puerto Rican families bore a disproportionate share of the loss and suffering.
Nearly a quarter million residents were displaced by the politics of austerity led by New York City's own fiscal control board and the closure of firehouses across the South Bronx.
While we can't undo the damages caused by these policies, the City Council now has an opportunity to right a historic wrong by standing with the people of Puerto Rico and demanding an end to the same failed policies of austerity that cause so much harm and suffering to our communities here.
And as the global epicenter for finance, we must also recognize that debt is another form of colonialism.
A country in debt crisis should not be a bargaining chip for hedge funds like Goldentree to extract outsized profits.
New York's courts should help resolve debt crises, not turn them into profit-making opportunities.
Let's pass Resolution 27, calling on the state to close the loophole that rewards predatory hedge funds and debt litigation.
This is the moment to act.
New York must set a standard worthy of our people.
We ask that you support all four resolutions so that we can tax wealth fairly, defend communities from displacement, confront Wall Street greed, and put an end to the control board in defense of democracy, justice, and self-determination.
Thank you so much.