What It Takes (to be Comptroller)
The procedures were announced in a joint statement from the Assembly and Senate which explained that candidates will have to submit resumes and to fill out financial disclosure forms.
In the meantime, the would-be comptrollers who currently serve in the state legislature are continuing to pour cold water on the Eliot Spitzer-endorsed idea that the position could profitably be filled by someone from the outside Albany, arguing that the skills it takes to manage the state's money are distinct from those required to manage a portfolio on Wall Street.
"The last thing in the world you want is the comptroller picking stocks," Richard Brodsky told me earlier this week.
"You can't possibly manage a $150 billion portfolio one investment at a time. Second of all, the job here is to balance reward and risk, in terms of investment, in ways that are not similar to managing ones own portfolio.
"This is not a question of whether you know whether you should be picking GE or GM. It's a question of how you calculate risk, especially in a fund that has been very heavily involved in what I'll call domestic equity. Essentially, if the stock market tanks, the fund tanks. That's not good policy. There needs to be a diversified investment portfolio including what are called alternative investments in ways that really reduce long term risk."
-- Azi Paybarah
I think Assemblyman Brodsky makes a great point here. Considering the number of people that depend on the state pension fund as their sole means of retirement income, the fund must be managed in a way that values the principles of fiscal conservatism and diverse portfolio management. Assemblyman Brodsky is the perfect choice to oversee the fund because he has many years of experience in regulating and reforming state authorities and agencies that are negligent in their balance of risk and reward when spending taxpayer dollars. (Empire Zone Program, Industrial Developement Agencies, etc) Over the years Brodsky has taken very seriously the resonsibility the state has to spend the taxpayers hard earned money wisely. There is no reason to believe that his management of the state pension fund would be any different.
So which candidates are definately in?
we need special elections for this post