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Questions for Candidates for NYC Comptroller

1) Government Accountability & Transparency. As the Chief Financial Officer of New York City, the Comptroller has the power to audit all city agencies to ensure tax dollars are spent in the public’s best interest. Will you:

Make information publicly available detailing which entities are receiving pension fund investments and at what levels? The best way to ensure that NYC pension fund investments are in the best interests of both the city and fund beneficiaries – city employees, educators, fire-fighters and police-officers – is to be completely transparent about where funds are being invested.

Audit how city agencies or authorities use federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funds to ensure the public’s interest is being advanced, e.g. jobs are being created for city residents?

Support the creation of an Office of Authorities Oversight (OAO) at the state level empowered to financially review the MTA and all other public authorities?

2) City Schools. A recent analysis of the Department of Education (DOE) capital budget reveals that many new schools are being built in districts that don’t face the greatest need for new seats or have the worst overcrowding problems. Will you audit expenditures of DOE capital funds and advocate that all new public and charter schools be built in districts based on need?

3) Greening NYC. The quickest way to reduce our energy use, cut carbon emissions, and slash New Yorker’s energy bills is to invest in making buildings more energy efficient on a mass scale. Will you:

Conduct a city-wide energy audit of all public buildings to see where energy can be reduced through retrofits and how much taxpayer money would be saved?

Support a bond issuance and use “Economically Targeted Investments” of pension funds to support initiatives that promote retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency (like the Working Families proposed Green Jobs/Green Homes NY Residential Retrofit Investment Fund)?

4) Affordable Housing. Last year, it was discovered that city pension funds had invested $85 million in a company that purchased a former Mitchell-Lama development, contributing to an erosion of affordable housing. To provide greater oversight to real estate investments, will you:

Hold public hearings regarding all purchases of affordable housing by debt-leveraged investors and block any city pension fund investments without a commitment and plan to maintain the permanent affordability of all housing units?

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Introduce an “investment directive” that prohibits fund managers from investing in companies that have bought affordable housing and have a history of housing code violations or conversions to non rent stabilized or regulated housing?

Introduce “shareholder resolutions” targeted at companies holding mortgage securitizations that include affordable housing to be required to commit to a plan to maintain affordability?

Audit all companies receiving 421-a subsidies to identify the number of affordable units created, the median cost per unit, and if prevailing-wage building and construction jobs are being created through the work?

5) Stemming Foreclosures. At the end of last year, New York City’s foreclosure rate jumped 50% from the previous year. To help working families keep their homes – particularly as many are pension fund beneficiaries – will you help stem foreclosures by:

Introducing an “investment directive” that prohibits fund managers from investing in mortgage lenders that refuse loan modifications to help reduce foreclosures?

Introduce “shareholder resolutions” targeted at companies holding mortgage securitizations that require them to actively undertake and document loan modifications?

Refuse to sell city bonds through broker-dealers connected to mortgage lenders that refuse to negotiate loan modifications?

Work with other state and city Comptrollers (i.e., CalPERS, SERS) to jointly require that all mortgage lenders receiving pension fund investments release data on the number of loan modifications granted and the degree to which interest rates and principal loans have been reduced?

6) Fair Economic Development. As the share of New Yorkers working in low-wage sectors continues to increase, the city must take all necessary steps to ensure tax dollars go towards creating jobs with decent wages. Towards this end, will you:

Require that all companies that receive city contracts to perform public work document jobs created and file records detailing employee wages and benefits?

Audit all companies receiving city economic development subsidies to identify the number of jobs created, examine employee payroll and benefits on all jobs created, and the economic and racial diversity of employees on all jobs created?

Reject city contracts with bidders that have a history of violating wage standards and occupational safety and health regulations?

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As a board member of the New York City Industrial Development Authority (IDA), vote to ensure that companies receiving IDA benefits meet the following conditions: maintain prevailing wages where already established, pay living wages on all other permanent jobs created, maintain job training requirements, and practice first-source hiring from the surrounding community.

7) Protecting Low Income New Yorkers. As the economic crisis worsens, the most vulnerable New Yorkers are increasingly reliant on the public safety net, with the number of New Yorker’s relying on food stamps having grown by 15% over the past year and more people in homeless shelters than at any other time in the city’s history. To ensure the interests of low income New Yorkers are protected, will you:

Audit the Human Resources Administration to determine the results of outreach efforts to the nearly 600,000 New York families identified as eligible but not enrolled in the food stamps program through the food stamps data match initiative?

Require that all shelters that receive city contracts through the Homeless Services Agency be prohibited from referring homeless individuals to illegally converted boarding houses with overcrowding and dangerous living conditions?

8) NYC Budget. As the City faces a growing budget deficit, new revenue sources will be needed to protect working and middle-class families from service cuts and regressive tax increases.

Would you support making the NYC personal income tax system (PIT) permanently more progressive by adding new income brackets and new rates at the high end, as was done temporarily from 2003-2005 in a less severe economic recession? What type of restructuring would you propose?

What other sources would you consider for new revenue?