Pol running deep in debt
Jumaane behind $625K on loan
The Empire State is drowning in debt — and so is a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.
City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) owes nearly $625,000 on a loan he took out to finance a vegan sandwich shop, court records show.
Williams — a professional tenants advocate before entering politics — borrowed $389,600 in 2006 through an adjustable-rate mortgage on his two-family home in Canarsie.
He stopped making payments in 2010 and was slapped with a foreclosure suit four years later by Bank of America, which purchased his debt when it bought original lender Countrywide Financial amid the subprime mortgage meltdown.
Williams, whose base council salary is $148,500 a year, filed a five-page, check-off form while acting as his own attorney in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
But he lost the house at 1392 E. 98th St. when councilman-turned-Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Noach Dear ruled against him last December, while Williams was serving as chairman of the council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings.
The house is currently listed for sale as a foreclosed property on the Trulia Web site, which calls it a two-unit condo.
Williams, who lives in a rental apartment in Midwood, has previously blamed his financial woes on the terms of his loan and tenants who didn’t pay their rent. His Earth Tonez Cafe in Park Slope closed in 2008.
Asked Monday about his debt, which includes interest and penalties, Williams told The Post in an e
mail that he was “continuing to work out a settlement” — and also pointed the finger at Gov. Cuomo.
“Far too many New Yorkers have felt the impact of #CuomosHousingCrisis including myself— especially those of us in black and brown communities,” said Williams, who is black.
Williams is challenging Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Sept. 13 primary, and he and Democratic gubernatorial challenger Cynthia Nixon cross-endorsed each other on Sunday.
New York residents are burdened with the nation’s highest per-capita state debt, which the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy think tank recently pegged at $17,528 each.
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli has said the state’s debt will reach $63.7 billion — second only to California’s $83 billion — by the end of the current fiscal year in March, and swell to $71.8 billion over the next four years.