EDITORIAL: Newsday endorses DiNapoli for comptroller
It's difficult to imagine a tougher start to a new job than the one Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli faced in 2007. His disgraced predecessor, Alan Hevesi, resigned weeks after his re-election, and, in a tumultuous process, the legislature picked DiNapoli, who rose to the challenge admirably.
DiNapoli has climbed a frightfully steep learning curve, brought stability to a demoralized agency, and tackled a cascade of crises. At the top of that list is the deep recession that has taken a large bite out of the state's common retirement fund, and the series of Newsday stories showing how attorneys for school districts were gaming the pension system. He has also overseen audits of school districts and the troubled MTA.
Now DiNapoli, 56, of Great Neck, faces two more tests: One is Hevesi's recent guilty plea for placing a major investment and getting in return almost $1 million in favors. It was a huge morale jolt to the office. The other is a challenge by the impressive and financially savvy Republican candidate, Harry Wilson, 39, of Scarsdale.
After making a lot of money in private life on Wall Street, Wilson is offering to make a lot less in public service. Last year, he did admirable work as the GOP point man for a Democratic presidential administration in restructuring General Motors.
Compare Wilson's financial acumen with DiNapoli's, and Wilson wins. But this job is about more than investments. In fact, Wilson says the pension fund should be less actively managed: Much of it should be invested to mimic the performance of standard index funds. That's an appealing way to eliminate a scandalous pay-to-play system.
The pension fund faces problems. If it falls short of the 7.5 percent earnings goal that DiNapoli set, down from 8 percent, local governments will have to make vastly larger contributions to make up the difference. So the comptroller will need sound advice, possibly from a board of investment gurus, if one can be structured to avoid conflicts of interest.
A big part of the job is watching over taxpayers' money. DiNapoli should be more aggressive in his audits of local governments, state agencies and authorities, looking for big-dollar savings from broad, systemic change. Most important, he must be a leader in the much-needed restructuring of the state's entire pension system. That requires knowledge of how Albany works, plus the network of trust DiNapoli, a passionate advocate for Long Island, has built over the years. Wilson's business skills alone wouldn't get it done, but Wilson is a significant talent and we hope he finds his way into public service.
Right after his appointment, we called DiNapoli "Mr. Clean and Mr. Consensus." Still true. If he wins a second term, the comptroller must now become Mr. Change, the catalyst in the urgent need to make our pension system and our state's finances sustainable. Newsday endorses DiNapoli. hN
