New York City Councilman Vicky Palladino appears to have misrepresented personal debt in financial disclosure documents, according to public records. It turns out that he actually owed nearly $20,000.
Palladino said no to Filed with City Conflict of Interest Committee in 2021 “You have contributed $5,000 or more to any entity or individual (excluding relatives) during 2021 or in any 90 consecutive days prior to the date you submitted this report, excluding mortgages on your primary and secondary residences. did you have any debts?”? “
But records obtained by the Daily News show that Republican congressmen representing Whitestone, College Point and Bayside in Queens were in debt at the time exceeding that threshold.
A subpoena issued in Queens Civil Court on Sept. 9, 2020 shows that Midland Credit Management Ltd. sought to recover $6,592 from Palladino, which Palladino filed with the city that year. The candidate’s disclosure form seems to have revealed the debt.
The following year, Palladino revealed no such debts, but records indicated that they still existed.
According to a civil court ruling dated October 17, 2022, the court ruled in Midland’s favor and awarded the exact same amount of damages of $6,592.01, plus an additional cost of $294 and a 2% interest penalty. Added to final bill.
This isn’t the only liability Palladino appears to have failed to report properly.
Palladino’s 2020 COIB form mentions Midland’s debt, but fails to mention another, larger debt to the Nassau Educators Federal Credit Union.
According to another judgment in Queens Civil Court, Palladino was owed $12,565 to the credit union as of March 2, 2020, which is her 2020 debt. 2020 COIB application coverage period, no mention of debt.
When asked about these discrepancies, Thomas Palladino, the councilor’s son and spokesperson for her campaign, described them as “minor press oversights” and “corrected in COIB if necessary.” will be done,” he said.
Former chairman of the city’s conflict of interest committee, Richard Brifort, was hesitant to speculate on what that meant when asked about the situation, but one year the debt was put on papers. I found it odd that it wasn’t listed the following year, even though I had been on it for a while—especially considering that the online forms from the following year onwards are automatically populated with the data that was entered the previous year.
Speaking more generally about recurring debt that meets COIB’s reporting standards, Brifort said, “It’s unusual for a company to be listed one year and not the next.”
Palladino, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, bills himself as a fiscal conservative. In February, she took to Twitter to rant about the city’s use of money, at the time saying, “We now rule by bailout.”
“Our economic policy now is to spend to the brink of bankruptcy, then let the Fed bail us out, wipe out the debt completely, and start all over again. It’s that simple. That’s what most city governments do.” That’s why no one seems to care much about sound economic policies, support for small businesses, sound tax rates, fiscal discipline, etc. They don’t care how much chaos we create here at the federal level. The Democrats definitely know what to do, they just bail us out when it comes down to it,” she said. “This is a truly horrible way to run a government, much less a city as important as our country.”
Palladino is up for re-election this year. She is running passively in the Republican primary, but she will eventually face one of three Democratic challengers in the upcoming November general election.Here are the Democrats running for the seat: Former State Senator Tony AbellaFormer Queens Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bay and Paul GrazianoCity planning consultant.
Speaking to The News, Abella accused Palladino of “lying” on her COIB application and questioned her rhetorical style on financial matters.
“Vicky likes to preach about sound economic policy and maintaining fiscal responsibility, while she piles up debt, fails to pay taxes, even lies on conflict of interest papers and fails to manage her own finances. “There are,” Abella said. She said, “How can you trust Vicky for failing to take responsibility for herself, complaining about her mismanagement of the city’s finances?”
A spokesperson for Palladino hit back, calling Avella “an elitist who has no understanding of the harsh realities that people in this neighborhood face every day.”
“I know Tony knows nothing about this, but working-class people who feed their families, run small businesses, pay their taxes and mortgages can struggle with their bills. It is a well-known fact that I was never wealthy, and my family, like many others, has had its fair share of financial hardships. I was,” the city council member said through a spokesperson. “Not everyone can be like Tony Avella, a career politician living on a large government salary and pension for the rest of his life.”
For many years, Ms. Palladino’s debt burden wasn’t limited to her alone, according to records.
A city councilor named Thomas Palladino and her husband owed nearly $76,000 in federal and state tax liens two years ago. Some of that debt goes back to her 2007.
Federal records show that nearly $38,000 in liens were satisfied in June 2021. State records also show that another $38,000 state tax warrant was settled in October 2021, the year Palladino was running for the city council where he currently sits. It was a year.
A spokesperson for Palladino said the debt was “a result of the Council member’s husband closing his small business.”
“We were able to pay it off gradually over about 14 years based on our payment plan and finally be fully satisfied in 2021,” he said. “At the time reporting was required, the balance was below reporting standards.”
When asked to provide her outstanding balance for 2020, her son, a spokesperson for Palladino, said the information was not immediately accessible.
There appears to have been no need to report that liability on the COIB form.
COIB Executive Director Carolyn Lisa Miller said generally about reporting obligations on such debt, the Disclosure Act states: The Act does not require reporting of liabilities owed by a company that “will be owned by the filer if the liability arises by the company in the ordinary course of business.”
But he added, “There may be complicating factors depending on the corporate structure of the business.”