New York City’s next comptroller will have to oversee the city’s roughly $100 billion budget as it claws its way out of an economic crisis prompted by the pandemic and ensure that more than $14 billion of federal pandemic aid is used wisely, Bloomberg News reported. A former U.S. Marine, an ex-financial journalist and a municipal-finance expert are among the Democrats competing in a June 22 primary to become the city’s chief financial watchdog; Republicans didn’t field a candidate. This will be the first comptroller race to be decided by ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to rank their top five candidates. The comptroller oversees five public pensions that collectively hold more than $250 billion in assets of 700,000 current and former city employees and retirees. That financial might allows the comptroller to exert influence over the environmental, social and governance investing practices of money managers and the companies the city invests in. Underperformance has consequences: Taxpayers must make up the difference if the pension funds fall short of delivering a 7% assumed annual rate of return. New York is projected to spend $10.3 billion on its pensions next year, or 16% of tax revenue. New York paid its 281 investment managers $880 million last year.
