The best would-be comptroller on the Democratic primary ballot is David Weprin. A city budget that’s grown by $26 billion since 2014 has lots of fat, both around the edges and marbled throughout the steak. Weprin, an assemblyman, Council veteran, former Wall Street pro and longtime fiscal wonk, is well equipped to oversee the small army of auditors tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. And he’d be a responsible steward of retirees’ pensions, caring much more about delivering solid returns than furthering political crusades. Rank him No. 1 on your ballot.
If polls are right, though, the race is between Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Councilman Brad Lander. It is crucial for voters to rank Johnson ahead of Lander.
Johnson isn’t our top choice because he’s got a bit too thin a resume for the job, and it seems like he really wants to be mayor. But he knows the city budget inside and out, having negotiated the last few, and would bring great enthusiasm to the task of finding savings on behalf of the taxpayers. Plus, he’s unlikely to try to monkey with pension funds, a sacred trust.
Lander, while smart and earnest, is a far-left true believer and therefore a major risk. He’s proposed managing pensions with metrics that include how well investments “address the cycle of racial wealth and income inequality,” a rabbit-hole if ever there was one. “Participatory auditing” would let community members do some of the job that hundreds of trained professionals in his office are already paid to do, apolitically. And he’s laid out plans to “use the tools of the comptroller’s office” to make the case for sex work decriminalization and universal health care.
This is a public office responsible for monitoring government finances. Don’t turn it into a publicly funded uber-progressive advocacy shop.
