TBI On The Move: In The Press
OP-ED: Micah Lasher has shown us many times who he is
For more than four decades, I fought on the front lines for working class Black and Latino communities. As a founder of the New York Working Families Party and the Black Institute, my life’s work has been rooted in a clear set of values: building independent, multiracial power, lifting up those marginalized by the political establishment, and speaking unapologetic truth to that same power.
Through these battles, I’ve learned Maya Angelou’s lesson: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Today, as New York State Assemblymember Micah Lasher seeks to position himself as a progressive and inclusive leader, we must remember that this is a man who built his career on the art of racial division.
As a staffer on Mark Green’s 2001 mayoral campaign, I believed we were engaged in a tough but fair fight against “Freddy” Ferrer. I was at the table for nearly every major decision, which made the truth so painful: A calculated, divisive strategy was operating in the shadows of our own campaign, and I only discovered it after the fact.
At the center of those racially divisive tactics was Micah Lasher.
It is now a matter of public record that Lasher was the operative responsible for flooding wealthy white neighborhoods with one of the most racist political cartoons in the city’s history. The image depicted a diminutive Ferrer with big lips kissing Rev. Al Sharpton as a bloated figure with an inflated backside.
Lasher didn’t just print it; he ensured it was flooded into white wealthy neighborhoods through mailers in the final days of the campaign. The goal was to weaponize fear and make white New Yorkers resent their Black and Latino neighbors. Rev. Sharpton didn’t mince words about it then or later, labeling Lasher a “bigoted consultant” for his role in that ugly campaign.
The hurt and humiliation I faced as one of the few advisors of color was profound. Realizing my own side used such political gamesmanship was a devastating reality check. To this day, I continue to share rooms with Micah Lasher in various spaces, but knowing what he did, I still could never look him in the eyes again.
Lasher eventually admitted to his role in disseminating those fliers, but a small act of damage control years later does not erase the damage done to the fabric of our city. It also forces a critical question about the kind of leaders we empower. Donald Trump has shown us the devastating cost of a New York politician who builds his brand on racial division. We cannot claim to stand against that kind of bigotry nationally without questioning Micah Lasher — a man who wrote the playbook for it here at home.
If it were a one-time “mistake” of a young operative, perhaps there would be room for grace, but for Lasher, targeting communities of color became a professional hallmark.
Years later, Lasher emerged as a chief architect and defender of “stop-and-frisk.” Hundreds of thousands of innocent Black and Brown men were being harassed, humiliated, and detained on street corners for the “crime” of walking while Lasher was in the halls of power defending the practice. He called it a “proven crime deterrence” method. He chose to ignore the trauma inflicted on our youth in favor of a policy that turned our neighborhoods into occupied zones.
Perhaps most dangerously, Lasher has stood on the record as defending the NYPD’s “Gang Database” — a secretive, racially biased list that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and other civil rights groups have fought to abolish. This isn’t just a local issue; it is a direct pipeline to deportation. Federal immigration agencies like ICE frequently use these types of local databases to target immigrants. Lasher is defending the very machinery that tears families apart today. You cannot claim to protect our immigrant neighbors while simultaneously championing the tools ICE uses to hunt them down.
From racist mailers to stop-and-frisk and deportation-enabling databases, Micah Lasher’s career is defined by marginalizing Black and Brown New Yorkers. For Micah Lasher, our communities weren’t constituencies to be served; they were collateral damage for his ambition.
New York City has a long memory. We know the kind of guy Micah Lasher is because he has spent his entire professional life showing us. It is time we finally believe him.
Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of the Black Institute and worked for Public Advocate Mark Green’s mayoral campaign in 2001.
Op-ed: Mamdani should fix property tax inequities before asking New Yorkers to pay more
New York City’s property tax system rests on a basic legal promise: Similar properties must be assessed uniformly and treated fairly under the law, especially for everyday taxpayers who expect the government to follow its own rules.
Yet across all five boroughs, from middle-income homeowners on Staten Island to tenants in the Bronx and families in lower-value co-ops and condos in Brooklyn, that promise is routinely broken. When assessments drift from reality, they produce unequal tax bills, erode public trust, and burden the very communities the law was meant to protect.
Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on fairness and affordability, is proposing a property tax increase that would make an already regressive, inequitable and racially skewed system even worse. Raising rates on top of unlawful and unequal assessments does not solve inequity. It deepens it, and it punishes the New Yorkers this administration promised to help.
An ongoing lawsuit filed nearly nine years ago by the Tax Equity Now New York coalition exposed how the city’s system flouts the law’s guarantee of uniform assessment. Similarly valued homes, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods, face arbitrarily higher assessments and resulting taxes, while more expensive small homes and many luxury co-ops and condos are assessed at far lower amounts.
In its 2024 ruling reviving TENNY’s case, the New York Court of Appeals described the city’s property tax system in stark terms. The court found that assessment practices create “substantially unequal tax bills on similarly valued properties” and bear “little relationship to fair market value,” with significant racial disparities.
The state attorney general likewise argued that these policies are administered by New York City and that the city has the power to correct them. The court agreed: Responsibility sits squarely with City Hall.
Yet at recent joint budget hearings, Budget Director Sharif Solomon, sitting beside Mayor Mamdani and First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, said the administration will pursue state legislation instead of using the authority New York City already has. The claim that only Albany can fix these core inequities is simply wrong. The courts have said so. The state has said so. New Yorkers have seen this playbook before: delay, deflect and ask Albany to take the heat.
By refusing to act now, this administration risks repeating the failures of past administrations that allowed unequal assessments to persist year after year. Proposing a tax increase while the system remains unlawful only adds fuel to the fire of inequality.
Despite the headlines, property taxes rise every year, and outer-borough rental buildings and co-ops already face record-high bills. New Yorkers feel these increases every month, whether City Hall admits it or not.
The mayor campaigned on breaking this decades-long cycle of delay. He promised fairness for Black and brown homeowners and renters who are disproportionately harmed when rental buildings are assessed far above comparable properties. He said equity could not wait. But shifting responsibility to Albany in an election year repeats the same pattern: talking about fairness while postponing action that City Hall can take today. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Property tax inequity is not abstract. When expensive co-ops and condos are assessed far below the income they generate, modest rental buildings in Queens or the Bronx end up carrying a greater and disproportionate share of the burden. Tenants, many of them Black and brown New Yorkers, feel the consequences first. Middle-income homeowners on Staten Island and families in lower-value co-ops and condos face the same structural problem: assessments detached from reality and tax bills that strain already-tight budgets.
The court of appeals has already acknowledged these disparities. They are measurable and deeply felt because inflated assessments lead directly to higher bills and greater housing insecurity.
The Black Institute has always been clear: Equity requires action, not excuses. City Hall has the authority to begin fixing unequal assessments now. It should do so before even considering a property tax increase.
Mayor Mamdani has a choice. He can continue the politics of delay, or he can follow the law and deliver fairness to homeowners, tenants and working families across this city. Fix the system you control. Reform unequal assessments now. New Yorkers deserve a government that follows the law before asking them to pay more.
Bertha Lewis is the founder of The Black Institute.
New York City’s property tax system rests on a basic legal promise: Similar properties must be assessed uniformly and treated fairly under the law, especially for everyday taxpayers who expect the government to follow its own rules.
Yet across all five boroughs, from middle-income homeowners on Staten Island to tenants in the Bronx and families in lower-value co-ops and condos in Brooklyn, that promise is routinely broken. When assessments drift from reality, they produce unequal tax bills, erode public trust, and burden the very communities the law was meant to protect.
Now Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on fairness and affordability, is proposing a property tax increase that would make an already regressive, inequitable and racially skewed system even worse. Raising rates on top of unlawful and unequal assessments does not solve inequity. It deepens it, and it punishes the New Yorkers this administration promised to help.
An ongoing lawsuit filed nearly nine years ago by the Tax Equity Now New York coalition exposed how the city’s system flouts the law’s guarantee of uniform assessment. Similarly valued homes, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods, face arbitrarily higher assessments and resulting taxes, while more expensive small homes and many luxury co-ops and condos are assessed at far lower amounts.
In its 2024 ruling reviving TENNY’s case, the New York Court of Appeals described the city’s property tax system in stark terms. The court found that assessment practices create “substantially unequal tax bills on similarly valued properties” and bear “little relationship to fair market value,” with significant racial disparities.
The state attorney general likewise argued that these policies are administered by New York City and that the city has the power to correct them. The court agreed: Responsibility sits squarely with City Hall.
Yet at recent joint budget hearings, Budget Director Sharif Solomon, sitting beside Mayor Mamdani and First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, said the administration will pursue state legislation instead of using the authority New York City already has. The claim that only Albany can fix these core inequities is simply wrong. The courts have said so. The state has said so. New Yorkers have seen this playbook before: delay, deflect and ask Albany to take the heat.
By refusing to act now, this administration risks repeating the failures of past administrations that allowed unequal assessments to persist year after year. Proposing a tax increase while the system remains unlawful only adds fuel to the fire of inequality.
Despite the headlines, property taxes rise every year, and outer-borough rental buildings and co-ops already face record-high bills. New Yorkers feel these increases every month, whether City Hall admits it or not.
The mayor campaigned on breaking this decades-long cycle of delay. He promised fairness for Black and brown homeowners and renters who are disproportionately harmed when rental buildings are assessed far above comparable properties. He said equity could not wait. But shifting responsibility to Albany in an election year repeats the same pattern: talking about fairness while postponing action that City Hall can take today. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Property tax inequity is not abstract. When expensive co-ops and condos are assessed far below the income they generate, modest rental buildings in Queens or the Bronx end up carrying a greater and disproportionate share of the burden. Tenants, many of them Black and brown New Yorkers, feel the consequences first. Middle-income homeowners on Staten Island and families in lower-value co-ops and condos face the same structural problem: assessments detached from reality and tax bills that strain already-tight budgets.
The court of appeals has already acknowledged these disparities. They are measurable and deeply felt because inflated assessments lead directly to higher bills and greater housing insecurity.
The Black Institute has always been clear: Equity requires action, not excuses. City Hall has the authority to begin fixing unequal assessments now. It should do so before even considering a property tax increase.
Mayor Mamdani has a choice. He can continue the politics of delay, or he can follow the law and deliver fairness to homeowners, tenants and working families across this city. Fix the system you control. Reform unequal assessments now. New Yorkers deserve a government that follows the law before asking them to pay more.
Bertha Lewis is the founder of The Black Institute.
Legislative Action Needed to Address New York's Auto Insurance Crisis
In Albany, New York, a coalition of faith and community leaders gathered at the State Capitol, calling for legislative action on Governor Kathy Hochul's proposed auto insurance reform. The proposal aims to leverage the Excess Profit Law to prioritize consumer savings above insurer profits. With New Yorkers facing auto insurance costs of approximately $4,000 annually—double the national average—this measure is seen as vital, especially in minority communities where premiums can soar from $5,000 to $7,000.
A recent poll highlights strong public support for these reforms, with 86% backing measures to reduce premiums and redistribute excess insurance profits to policyholders. Advocates pressed lawmakers to collaborate with the Governor to implement reforms addressing fraud and enhancing system transparency, ensuring cost reductions directly benefit policyholders. Tuulikki Robertson of the Black Institute emphasized the economic hardship insurance expenses impose, while Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman called for resolving the affordability crisis impacting essential transportation expenses.
Reverend James A. Lewis highlighted the need for affordable auto insurance as crucial for working families. Reverend Conrad Tillard urged lawmakers to act on public consensus favoring reform. Meanwhile, business owner Amina Iduma supported strategies combatting fraudulent practices, advocating for transparency and incentives for safe driving. The advocacy group Citizens for Affordable Rates (CAR) continues to address high insurance costs through policy reform and public engagement, with further details available on their website.
In Albany, New York, a coalition of faith and community leaders gathered at the State Capitol, calling for legislative action on Governor Kathy Hochul's proposed auto insurance reform. The proposal aims to leverage the Excess Profit Law to prioritize consumer savings above insurer profits. With New Yorkers facing auto insurance costs of approximately $4,000 annually—double the national average—this measure is seen as vital, especially in minority communities where premiums can soar from $5,000 to $7,000.
A recent poll highlights strong public support for these reforms, with 86% backing measures to reduce premiums and redistribute excess insurance profits to policyholders. Advocates pressed lawmakers to collaborate with the Governor to implement reforms addressing fraud and enhancing system transparency, ensuring cost reductions directly benefit policyholders. Tuulikki Robertson of the Black Institute emphasized the economic hardship insurance expenses impose, while Reverend Dr. Robert Waterman called for resolving the affordability crisis impacting essential transportation expenses.
Reverend James A. Lewis highlighted the need for affordable auto insurance as crucial for working families. Reverend Conrad Tillard urged lawmakers to act on public consensus favoring reform. Meanwhile, business owner Amina Iduma supported strategies combatting fraudulent practices, advocating for transparency and incentives for safe driving. The advocacy group Citizens for Affordable Rates (CAR) continues to address high insurance costs through policy reform and public engagement, with further details available on their website.
Faith, Community Leaders Rally For Auto Insurance Reform; Coalition Urges Albany Lawmakers To Deliver Relief In State Budget
Faith and community leaders from across New York State gathered today at the State Capitol’s Million Dollar Staircase to call on the Legislature to pass Governor Kathy Hochul’s auto insurance reform plan in the final State Budget and deliver meaningful relief for drivers. Speakers highlighted the Governor’s proposal to direct the state to use the Excess Profit Law to ensure savings from these reforms benefit consumers before insurers.
The coalition of faith and civic leaders noted the growing financial burden auto insurance costs are placing on working families across the state, particularly in communities of color. Advocates emphasized that New Yorkers now pay an average of roughly $4,000 per year for auto insurance – about twice the national average, with premiums reaching $5,000 to $7,000 in some areas.
Speakers also pointed to a recent poll showing 86 percent of New Yorkers support reforms aimed at lowering premiums and ensuring excess insurance profits are returned to policyholders. At the event, coalition members urged lawmakers to work with the Governor to pass reforms that target fraud and system abuse, increase transparency, and ensure savings are passed on to drivers.
“New Yorkers are in an affordability crisis and paying $4,000 a year for car insurance on top of everything is simply an unsustainable burden for working families,” said Tuulikki Robertson, Executive Director of the Black Institute. “Faith leaders and community advocates from Buffalo to Brooklyn are speaking with one voice: lawmakers must use this year’s budget to deliver real relief and put money back into the pockets of drivers across our state.”
“Budget decisions reflect our values as a state,” said Rev. Dr. Robert Waterman, Antioch Baptist Church. “When families are choosing between paying for car insurance and paying for groceries, something is very wrong. Addressing the auto insurance affordability crisis is not just a common sense policy, it’s the right thing to do for the people we serve every day.”
“For many working families, a car isn’t a luxury – it’s how they get to work, take their children to school, and care for loved ones,” said Rev. James A. Lewis, President of Buffalo/Niagara National Action Network. “When auto insurance premiums climb into the thousands of dollars each year, that’s money that could be going toward rent, education, or supporting local businesses. Reforming this broken system is about restoring fairness for everyday New Yorkers.”
“The public is overwhelmingly on the side of reform,” said Rev. Conrad Tillard, Senior Minister Congregational Church of South Hempstead. “Recent polling shows 86 percent of New Yorkers support efforts to bring down car insurance costs and return excess profits to policyholders. That level of agreement is unheard of in today’s politics, and it should send a clear message to lawmakers that the time for action is now.”
“New Yorkers deserve a system that works for honest drivers, not one that forces them to pay thousands more than people in other states. If leaders are serious about making New York more affordable, including auto insurance reform in the final budget would be a big step towards putting real money back into people’s pockets,” said Amina Iduma, owner of Lami African Market in Nassau County.
Governor Hochul has proposed reforms to lower auto insurance costs by cracking down on fraud, limiting payouts for drivers engaging in unlawful behavior, and modernizing litigation rules. Notably, the plan directs the state to re-examine the Excess Profit Law to ensure savings from these reforms benefit consumers before insurers. The plan also increases transparency on rate changes and rewards safe driving.
About Citizens for Affordable Rates (CAR)
Citizens for Affordable Rates (CAR) is a coalition of citizens, advocates, and organizations dedicated to tackling the root causes of high auto insurance costs in New York. Through advocacy, education, and policy reform, CAR is committed to building an affordable and dependable system for all New Yorkers. For more information, visit: www.citizensforaffordablerates.com
City & State: More than 80% of NY parents support law restricting app downloads for teens
A new report found that a majority of New York parents, especially those of color, support the creation of a law restricting children under 16 from downloading apps without parental consent.
The study, released by the Black Institute and conducted by Global Strategy Group, found that parents were more than 80% in favor of legislation to restrict teens from downloading apps without their permission. Additionally, the study found that 46% of Black parents were strongly in favor of such legislation, while 41% strongly favored it overall.
The study surveyed a group of 600 parents of children under 18 in New York state and included an oversample of 206 Black parents, with a margin of error of +/-4%.