Opinion

Will new city comptroller oppose city pension fund plan?

In his inaugural address, City Comptroller Scott Stringer declared that “pursuing a progressive agenda and being fiscally responsible is not mutually exclusive.”

He will soon be put to the test. Mayor de Blasio says he wants to take $1 billion from the city’s $144 billion in pension funds to finance construction of 11,000 housing units for low- and middle-income families, part of his larger plan to build 200,000 new units over the next decade.

As comptroller, Stringer is custodian of the city’s five pension funds. That means he’ll be asked to sign off on any such investment. In this role, his fiduciary obligation is to ensure investments are made to maximize returns, not advance a mayor’s agenda.

Granted, the funds have been investing in low-cost housing for decades. But the real obstacle to affordable housing in this city is not the lack of financing from city pension funds. It’s the heavy hand of government, which has helped make costs for building in New York 30 percent higher than in other major cities.

If Mayor Bill really wants a progressive housing policy for New York, why not take on the biggest Tale of Two Cities here: those who have rent-controlled or rent-stabilized apartments and those who don’t.

The point is that if subsidized housing could solve New York’s high-rent crisis, it would have done so long ago.

As for looking to the pension funds for cash, we’re with Mayor Bloomberg, who last month noted of a plan by teachers unions to use some of its pension funds for city infrastructure, that it’s not the union but the taxpayer who’s on the hook if things go sour.

Let’s hope Stringer remembers, too.