In the race for New York state comptroller, Democrat Tom DiNapoli faced off against Republican challenger Bob Antonacci in their only debate Wednesday evening.
In an hour-long debate at Baruch College that aired on TWC News, DiNapoli, New York comptroller since 2007, faced Onondaga County comptroller Bob Antonacci.
DiNapoli, who replaced the disgraced Comptroller Alan Hevesi, had the closest statewide race in 2010 when he survived a challenge by Harry Wilson. Now, DiNapoli is defending his role as the primary trustee of the state’s pension fund, and touted its positive ratings.
“I think the strength has been broad diversification, having a professional investment staff working with advisors and consultants that are very skilled, and I think the numbers speak for themselves. We're the best funded of all the big-state plans, one of the best-funded in the country. We have a great track record and comes with a lot of hard work and a lot of professional attention.
Antonacci said the pension fund relies too heavily on taxpayer contributions.
“And until we have real talk about a defined contribution plan, we’re going to continue to see the tax spikes that we see. In Onondaga County alone, we have one of the highest bond ratings in the state, we just passed a budget unanimously with no tax increase. We've had over $20 million taken from our county for the pension contribution."
DiNapoli said moving to defined contributions would too risky for retirees.
The candidates also discussed public campaign financing reform. As outlined in this year’s budget, a pilot public financing program was limited to the comptroller’s race. DiNapoli, who says he supports broad public campaign financing, opted out of the program.
At the debate, Antonacci admitted his support for public campaign financing in the comptroller’s race could put him at odds with his fellow Republicans. Antonacci has not yet raised enough money to kick in the 6-to-1 public campaign financing matching funds.
“The Republican Party is generally not a fan of public financing, neither is the Conservative Party, and my constisuency has made that clear. But this campaign is tough to fund anyway. When you say expansion, I think that's a topic for another day, but certainly the comptroller's office, the fact that you're the sole trustee of the pension plan, if there's there's any office that lends itself to public financing it's the comptroller's office."
DiNapoli called the plan a “very flawed system.”
“Whether it was set up intentionally to fail or not, certainly it was clear it was going to fail. This should not be an excuse for us to retreat from comprehensive campaign finance reform, lower limits, and public financing for state legislative races and all the statewide offices."
On the issue of public corruption in the legislature, Antonacci accused DiNapoli of not being aggressive enough during his term as a legislator or comptroller in stopping wrongdoing.
“It’s very easy to go in and see money that is stolen after the fact. It's how you set up internal control apparatuses so the money is not stolen in the first place."
DiNapoli stood by his record, mentioning the indictment of two lawmakers indicted for abusing per diems.
“The message is clear, there are rules. We can argue whether the rules should be tighter or not, but if you break those rules, we're going to find out, we're going to work with prosecutors, and you're going to be indicted."
Antonacci criticized the comptroller for not speaking out against a comprehensive settlement authorized by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver with Democratic Assemblyman Vito Lopez, who was accused of sexually harassing two female staff members.
“That 'Vito Gropez' scandal was poorly handled. He could've stopped the settlement. We're still paying for that scandal right now. We're still cutting checks to the attorneys, and in fact, 'Mr. Gropez' may not even have enough money to pay the settlement to pay the victims, and New York state is going to have to pay that settlement even more money," said Antonacci.
DiNapoli responded.
"A comptroller cannot pick and choose on a valid payment that's submitted by a state agency. That's a very dangerous notion that the comptroller's going to sit there and make judgements when there's the money there and it's legal. We are not the office to make policy choices or to make these kind of legal determinations."
The two also offered different opinions on public investment in hydrofracking, with Antonacci calling New York’s shale gas deposits a “goldmine.” DiNapoli said he would not invest in a practice that could have negative effects on human health.
Fracking has been on hold in New York under a de facto moratorium while the state considers health and environmental impacts.
The two both asserted their own independence from Governor Andrew Cuomo, though DiNapoli did opine that Cuomo would be the best governor for New York.
Audio of the debate is courtesy Time Warner Cable News.
