Melinda Katz Receives Building Union Endorsement

Melinda Katz stands by Gary Labarbera, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council, as he announced the union's endorsement of Katz for city comptroller. Christine Lin/The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—The Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTD) announced at city hall on Wednesday its endorsement of Councilwoman Melinda Katz in the race for New York City comptroller.

With the addition of the BCTD Katz now has received the endorsements of 32 individual unions with more than 550,00 members in her bid to become the next comptroller.

Katz, currently a city council member, was a former state assembly member, a merger and acquisitions attorney, chair of Land Use Committee, and a representative of Elmhurst, Queens.

President of BCTD Gary LaBarbera voiced his support for Katz, “As chair of the Land Use Committee, Melinda shows strong knowledge of the building and construction trades.“ He also added that he believes Katz will be an “aggressive fiscal watchdog” and enforce labor laws in the city.

Katz also talked about what her duties would be as comptroller, “Everywhere across the city we have stopped building. These are the guys who want to keep building. As comptroller I will make sure those jobs continue.”

Also at a recent breakfast forum among the candidates, Katz also said if she were to become comptroller she would combat stealing public money by setting up an audit while getting the parties into one room to negotiate. She also mentioned she is against the sales tax increase, which burdens the poor.

Although receiving an endorsement from the BCTD is beneficial, opponents of Katz says she is too close with New York’s landlords and real estate community.

Councilmember and opponent David Weprin openly criticized Katz by saying, “Melinda Katz sounds like she’s running for chair of the City Planning Commission.”

Ben Branham, a spokesperson for Katz’s campaign said that Katz’s close relationship with the real estate community is false.

Branham said, “[She is the] only candidate in the race who’s sat across from developers and gotten them to build affordable housing, parks and schools. None of the candidates can say they sat across the table from developers and forced them to create affordable housing and prevailing wage jobs.”