Wilson blasts DiNapoli over pension payment plan

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's Republican challenger, Harry Wilson, Wednesday used the Senate's passage of the state budget as an occasion to renew his ongoing attacks on what he called a "secretive borrowing scheme" advocated by DiNapoli and estimated it will lead to $1,300 in extra property taxes on the average household.

"New Yorkers are reeling from some of the highest property taxes in America, and thanks to Mr. DiNapoli, their taxes will be climbing even higher," Wilson said, in a release typical of the aggressive campaign he has rolled out this summer.

But a spokesman for the comptroller's office called Wilson's critique "irresponsible" and "misleading," while one analyst said his numbers don't add up.

Wilson has criticized legislation adopted by the Senate Tuesday, but advocated by DiNapoli, that provides an optional 10-year payment plan for a portion of the huge spike in pension payments facing state and local governments next year - from 7.4 percent of payroll to 11.9 percent next year.

As adopted, governments could, in effect, "borrow" a portion of their required payments from the state pension plan at 5 percent interest, and would be required to establish reserve accounts to smooth out fluctuations in market performance.

Wilson said the legislation was "secretive" because the state has not disclosed all the assumptions underlying its pension projections, and contends the plan was "devised to hide the massive underperformance of the pension fund."

But Frank Mauro of the Democratic-leaning Fiscal Policy Institute said he'd tried to do the math on Wilson's calculations and concluded that the additional taxes he projects are "off by an order of magnitude."

Robert Whalen, a spokesman for DiNapoli, said the poor performance of the markets in 2007 and 2008 is what led to the spike in pension costs, but stressed that the pension-borrowing was an option to provide "short-term relief" for local governments struggling with a slow recovery. He pointed to a recent study by the Pew Trusts that found New York to be one of the nation's strongest pension systems.

"Why is that?" Wilson replied in an interview. "It's because any time there's a shortfall they pass it through with tax increases." New York should revert to the more conservative investment practices used before the 1980s, he said.