Pension funds belong to taxpayers — not YOU – Latest News
New York’s metropolis comptrollers are supposed to safeguard taxpayer {dollars}, however many have handled town pension funds they oversee as their own play money — and Mark Levine is no completely different.
Thursday, Levine introduced that he’ll skim $4 billion in pension-fund money to enhance “affordable housing,” in response to a “worsening housing crisis.”
Huh? New York pols have bemoaned the housing disaster for almost a century — which makes it more the established order than a “crisis.”
Yes, town does need more housing, however that’s largely as a result of lefty pols (like Levine) have pushed insurance policies that stifle development and erode the housing stock.
Equally problematic is when comptrollers faucet pension-fund money for his or her own pet causes.
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That money, bear in mind, is meant to be invested to fund payouts of public workers’ pensions.
Those funds are assured by taxpayers, so when the funds’ worth falls short, Joe and Jane New Yorker have to make up the distinction.
And when comptrollers invest pension funds within the trigger du jour, they risk sacrificing returns — leaving taxpayers on the hook.
It’s a main breach of their fiduciary obligation.
If Levine’s “affordable housing” investment is really a good financial investment, then his announcement is a charade: It has nothing to do with boosting reasonably priced housing.
If, nevertheless, he’s aiming to increase housing, regardless of decrease anticipated pension-fund returns, then he’s hurting the funds on the public’s expense.
He can’t have it each methods.
Note, too, that Gov. Kathy Hochul & Co. are poised to go pension-plan “fixes” (reducing the retirement age, as an example) as a suck-up to the unions.
That’ll solely make the taxpayers’ invoice even greater — to the tune of $328 million a yr in Gotham alone; all of the more motive to safeguard pension-fund money.
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In any occasion, it’s not the job of a comptroller, town’s financial supervisor, to resolve which social investments to make; that’s a political, not financial, resolution.
Levine isn’t the primary comptroller to overstep, of course; his fast predecessor, Brad Lander, bought off Israel bonds as a result of he despises the Jewish state’s elected leaders.
We get it: Eyeing greater workplace, comptrollers look to pander for future assist.
But again, their job is to decrease taxpayer prices by maximizing returns, not divert funds to bolster their personal reputation.
If Levine doesn’t get that, he shouldn’t be comptroller, not to mention ever maintain any greater workplace.
