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Comptroller
DiNapoli On Pensions: We’re Not In A Crisis Position
Jan 24th - 3:20 pm
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has given similar speeches before on his distaste for 401(k)-like defined contribution plans that he says weaken the retirement safety net.
But his position has eyebrows now in the context of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to offer an optional defined contribution plan that follows the TIAA-CREF model as part of the Tier VI proposal that he inserted into the budget.
“Again, we have among the best funded if not the best funded state plan of any in the country,” DiNapoli said after an interview on The Capiol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter. “So we’re not in a position of crisis or weakness, we need to keep that in mind. And when you provide this kind of benefits, there’s an overall benefit to our economy.”
DiNapoli gave an iteration of his speech warning against 401(k) style plans at a forum in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
Cuomo also wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 65 and an end to the overtime in the calculation of an employee’s final average salary, among other proposals that public-labor unions have blasted. The plan would only apply to new hires.
And while the governor, who did not endorse DiNapoli in 2010, has said the proposal can save up to $83 billion for the communities outside of New York City, DiNapoli said the human cost has to be considered.
“What’s the impact on our local economies all across New York? Do you want to weaken that retirement security? Do you want to weaken that safety net and economic security that people feel? We have to keep that in mind as well,” he said.
DiNapoli: NYRA Not Racing To Make Changes
Jan 24th - 11:37 am
The New York Racing Association isn’t doing enough to fix its financial woes, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said today in a letter to CEO Charlie Hayward.
“More than a year after my office’s last audit and real-time financial monitoring of NYRA, the organization still has much work to do to carry out the reforms we recommended,” DiNapoli said. “NYRA stands to squander significant revenue from the recently opened VLT franchise at Aqueduct. I will continue to closely monitor NYRA to ensure it reins-in unnecessary spending and does not waste the new money coming in from the Aqueduct racino.”
The comptroller also said NYRA shouldn’t use the “windfall” expected from video-lottery terminals at Aqueduct to mask the financial problems.
DiNapoli’s new audit released today found that the fiscal recommendations in the 2010 report were either partially implemented or not taken up at all.
The new audit found there will be a $11.5 million gap for the 2011 calendar year and a $19.7 million from racing operations this year.
And while NYRA cut its overall staffing by 3 percent from 2009 to 2010, the association did not prepare an analysis for its departments outlining the optimal number of employees in each as recommended.
The report comes several weeks after the state Racing and Wagering Board found NYRA had overcharged thousands of bettors for so-called exotic bets and ordered $8.6 million worth of repayments.
DiNapoli: Replacing Defined Benefit Pension With 401(K)-Style Plan ‘Unacceptable’
Jan 19th - 2:06 pm
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli today issued an aggressive defense of the current pension system andm – without getting into specifics – slammed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to offer a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan as part of his Tier 6 proposal, calling the change “unacceptable” and “extreme.”
DiNapoli’s comments came at a forum sponsored by the National Public Pension Coalition at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
According to a copy of the comptroller’s prepared remarks sent out by his press office, DiNapoli decried the “coordinated, sustained attacks by anti-pension advocates” that he says have “falsely cast public pensions as costly, unsustainable giveaways that are bankrupting states and localities.”
The comptroller insisted that most state pension plans are sustainable for the long term, and said New York’s fund is among the “best-funded and best-run” in the US.
He then offered some statistics that are often employed by unions fighting against pension reform, saying less than one-half of one percent of the 385,000 retired public employees receive pensions exceeindg $100,000. The average pension, excluding police and fire, is $19,151, he said, and 76 percent receive less than $30,000 a year.
“Items like the level of pension contributions and how to control overtime abuse are acceptable areas for discussion and debate,” the comptroller said.
“What I think is unacceptable is promoting the more extreme change of replacing DB plans with 401k’s; 401k’s were never intended to take the place of pensions. They were designed to be savings vehicles to supplement pensions and social security income. And overall, in their relatively short history, they have proven to be woefully inadequate for those who rely on them for their primary retirement income.”
These are no doubt fighting words that will not please Cuomo, who has a shaky relationship with DiNapoli to begin with.
Recall the reports (never publicly confirmed by Cuomo) that he wanted former NYC Comptroller and 2009 NYC mayoral candidate Bill Thompson to challenge DiNapoli. Also recall that Cuomo initially implicated DiNapoli in his pay-to-play pension fund investigation, and then cleared him very late in the 2010 campaign, but never formally endorsed him.
Also, for a while there Cuomo was making a push to change the sole trusteeship of the state pension fund – basically the biggest power the comptroller has – into a board system. This would have required legislative action and wasn’t something the Assembly – DiNapoli’s former political home, and the body responsible for putting him in the comptroller’s office – would not likely support.
It’s interesting to note that Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is a close ally of DiNapoli’s. The speaker said yesterday that there’s a “long way to go” to achieve the Tier 6 reform Cuomo is seeking, but a number of his majority conference members (quoted without attribution by the DN) and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos have said they believe a deal will be reached on pension reform before the end of the legislative session.
Also worth noting: Organized labor went all in for DiNapoli in 2010 and helped him in his very tight race against Republican Harry Wilson.
DiNapoli: Tax Collections Slow
Jan 13th - 11:44 am
Tax collections are nearly $231 million below expectations, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli reported this morning.
The news comes a few days before Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivers his second budget proposal to the state Legislature.
“It’s important to recognize that even though tax receipts are up from the previous year, economic growth remains sluggish and the economy fragile,” DiNapoli said. “We must continue to monitor spending and revenue closely for the remainder of this fiscal year to ensure we stay in balance. The tax code actions taken to address the deficit are expected to help both this year and next.”
Revenue appeared to be up in the spring of 2011, but those numbers even then were considered largely an illusion, due to the timing of tax receipts.
According to DiNapoli’s report, year-to-date tax collections increased by 8.6 percent, but that largely from the April spike.
In December, tax collections $188.4 million, which was 2.7 percent lowe than the previous year.
43 Municipalities Exceeded Cap ‘Inappropriately’
Jan 9th - 12:47 pm
Forty- three municipal governments exceeded the newly enacted 2 percent cap on local property tax levy increases, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s office said today.
DiNapoli, whose office is charged with ensuring local governments comply with the measure’s requirements, said his auditors are available to help the municipalities follow the new law.
“My auditors will be visiting the municipalities that exceeded their tax cap improperly to make sure they have taken corrective action and educed their tax bills or put any excess property tax revenue into a reserve as required by the law,” DiNapoli said. “Our review assisted local governments by providing insight into common issues and errors calculating the new tax cap, and I have directed my staff to develop additional training and expand our outreach to eliminate these errors.”
An override of the cap, passed in June, requires 60 percent of a local elected board to bypass the limit. Of the governments that overrode the cap legally, 177 or 22 percent of all municipalities were able to do so, DiNapoli’s office said.
For the local governments that couldn’t get the levy under 2 percent, the comptroller’s auditors worked with ten municipalities to take “correction action” and save local taxpayers from being improperly billed $280,000.
Still, the major caveats for all this tax cap is that school districts are yet to calculate their own budgets and determine how to stay within the limit. In school districts, budgets are not approved until the spring and it takes 60 percent of local voters to override the cap.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has spun this a democratic initiative, namely that voters have more of a say over their taxes than ever before.
DiNapoli: Do The Crime, Double The Penalty
Jan 3rd - 5:25 pm
As former Sen. Carl Kruger files for his pension effective Jan. 14, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is introducing a program bill that would force a public official found guilty of corruption to pay up to twice of the amount received in their graft scheme.
DiNapoli introduced a similar measure last year, but it did not pass the Legislature. The measure DiNapoli is again pushing would have applied to Kruger, who remains eligible for his state pension.
“Former Senator Kruger’s actions were a breach of the public’s trust, but the State Constitution prevents the forfeiture of his pension. My bill would ensure that those public officials who engage in corrupt practices and wrongdoing will suffer a cost to themselves and their families if they abuse their position for personal gain. Public confidence in government has been bruised and battered. This bill will be a strong step toward rebuilding trust.”
The ethics law passed in June and signed into law in August does restrict public officials convicted of corruption from receiving their state pension, but the measure did not contain a grandfather clause for pols like Kruger. The Brooklyn Democrat’s annual pension was calculated to be roughly $69,534.
DiNapoli Sounds Fracking Concerns
Dec 29th - 1:43 pm
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli is wading back into the hydrofracking debate, saying that the process remains an environmentally hazardous one.
In his latest comments to the ongoing draft environmental review being conducted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the comptroller says the proposed regulations should high-volume fracking be allowed do not go far enough.
“Accidents can happen during natural gas drilling regardless of how carefully the industry and regulators act in trying to prevent them,” DiNapoli said. “In those instances, New Yorkers should not have to face costly and prolonged delays to clean up contamination. DEC’s revised environmental impact statement and regulations still fall short of addressing how the state would pay for clean-up costs and hold parties that caused the contamination responsible. Establishing a dedicated fund would ensure that hazardous conditions can be cleaned up quickly and responsibly.”
DiNapoli sent a letter to DEC Commissioner Joe Martens urging him to again consider a damage relief fund.
DiNapoli in August called for gas companies to contribute to a contamination fund that would help property pay for any damage caused by a natural-gas extraction mishap.
Hydrofracking, a controversial process that involves blasting a mixture of chemicals, sand and water underground in order to extract natural gas, is shaping up to be the hot-button issue of 2012 for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature.
Business interests — particularly the energy lobby — are pushing hard for permits to be issued in the coming year, shaping the issue as one that could be an economic boon for the Southern Tier of New York.
The DEC’s public comment period on the draft environmental review was due to end this month, but officials extended the deadline to Jan. 11.
DiNapoli: NYers Will Lose $7.1B For Payroll Tax Inaction
Dec 22nd - 11:54 am
New Yorkers would lose a combined $7.1 billion if Congress lets the payroll tax holiday expire at the end of the year, according to Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s calculations.
A lump of coal for Christmas indeed.
“At a time when families are struggling to make ends meet, this money should stay in the pockets of working New Yorkers rather than going to Washington,” DiNapoli said. “Partisanship has a $7.1 billion price tag for residents of this state if an agreement can’t be reached to extend the payroll tax cut and that’s simply not what New York families need right now.”
Lawmakers in Washington are in a seemingly prolonged state of deadlock on extending the tax into the new year. Republicans and Democrats in the Senate agreed to a two-month extension and House Speaker John Boehner was supposedly on board, until the noisy freshman caucus revolted against the plan yet again.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell today urged House Republicans to accept the short-term plan.
If nothing is done, the payroll tax rate would grow from the current 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent.
If left expire at the and the of the year, those making $40,000 would lose roughly $800 a year.
The White House estimates that someone making $50,000 and is paid on bi-weekly basis would lose roughly $20 from their paycheck.
It’s pretty much bad optics for everyone involved in Washington. Notice, however, that this yet another New York politician condemning Washington gridlock after things ran so smoothly this year in Albany. Weird times indeed.
Wage Tax Increase
$ 20,000 $ 400
$ 40,000 $ 800
$ 60,000 $1,200
$ 80,000 $1,600
$100,000 $2,000
$110,100 (and above) $2,202
DiNapoli: Next Year’s Deficit Will Be A Struggle
Dec 19th - 11:44 am
The state’s finances remain precarious, despite the deficit reduction enacted by the Legislature earlier this month, Comptroll Tom DiNapoli said today.
In the updated November financial report, DiNapoli’s office found that year-to-date growth in revenue was 10.9 percent in 2011 compared to 2010. But that refelcts April collections and is not indicative of current conditions.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers were able to plug a $350 million deficit in the current year’s budget by enacting a plan that adjusts tax rates. The reshuffling of the tax code also enabled $1.5 billion in needed revenue to go toward paying down the expected $3.5 billion gap in the coming 2012-13 fiscal year, which begins April 1.
Cuomo at the time said the tax code changes aided in completing about half of the spending plan for next year. But questions remain as to how much money Wall Street firms will dole out this year by way of bonsues.
From DiNapoli:
“We’ve seen the growth in tax collections slow throughout the year,” DiNapoli said. “Financial sector downsizing, as well as lower profits and bonuses on Wall Street, may result in lower than expected state revenues over the next several months. The Personal Income Tax (PIT) actions taken by the governor and the Legislature this month should reduce projected deficits in the near-term, but balancing next year’s budget will again be a struggle, and current conditions add risk to the upcoming state budget.”
DiNapoli Shows Them The Money On GMA
Dec 5th - 11:49 am
ICYMI, here’s Comptroller Tom DiNapoli’s appearance on Good Morning America from earlier this morning, in which he hands over an over sized $6,808 check to a flood-damaged school in Tioga County.
The appearance was to promote the state’s unclaimed funds pool and DiNapoli’s office has a searchable website and database. A social studies teacher at the school was also in line to receive $775.
DiNapoli handing out a giant check to a school a little reminiscent of an episode of The Simpsons, when State Comptroller Atkins declares that “This is what comptrolling is all about.”
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