DiNapoli, Comptroller, 2010 ??
Saw this bumper sticker, minus the question marks, in a grocery parking lot today. This is a campaign for a job in New York State that is responsible for the New York State Pension Fund, one of the largest institutional investors in the world. This is a campaign, as always, for sole trustee of that fund. Comptroller of New York oversees all pension rules as well.
This may be the most corrupt job in America. DiNapoli, like the convicted Hevesi before him, and still investigated McCall before him, has no experience in investment mangagement, no possible idea of what he's doing other than being a politician with power over money. This job also has control over the so obviously and massively corrupt system of pensions which allows pay over the last three years of work to be the gauge of life long pension benefits. Hence the pervasive overtime of short timers, a trick so obvious that it is just blatant corruption. The Comptroller overseas such things as disability payments, as in the exposed but ignored fact that 97% of Long Island Railroad union employees retire on disability, despite working for one of the highest rated safety systems in the country. Photos of the disabled on the golf course are ignored, and these pensions are large, $100,000 per year plus and amazingly comprehensive health benefits for picking up tickets for 20 years.
No one in state power seems to want to downsize the powers of the comptroller, a significant lightweight politico. It's not personal. This system has been wrong forever. New York is an extremely corrupt state. The legal system is run completely by the lawyers, everything, on any issue, requires fault, meaning litigation. Every encounter with any state rule requires counsel, that means competing counsel to demand controversy and encourage judicial discretion, often meaning coercion and bribery. Something as simple as guardianship for someone with completely obvious dementia takes at least a year with attorneys on every issue, four in the case being experienced, plus financial advisors on the tab as well. In Virginia this takes at most six weeks, at less than 10% of the cost.
A starting point in the Comptroller issue must be a resolution to remove the pension funds from political control. Nothing is possible under the completely and bizarrely incompetent David Patterson but if he could be impeached... not possible I know, black, blind, and retarded is just too many covered classes, Spitzer was massively insecure... but in the future this seriously corrupt place needs change, or will the whole state just default to the New York City area, which has become an international city of wealth where the power of money and avarice competes to overrule the power of art and creativity, until catastrophe hits again.
This may be the most corrupt job in America. DiNapoli, like the convicted Hevesi before him, and still investigated McCall before him, has no experience in investment mangagement, no possible idea of what he's doing other than being a politician with power over money. This job also has control over the so obviously and massively corrupt system of pensions which allows pay over the last three years of work to be the gauge of life long pension benefits. Hence the pervasive overtime of short timers, a trick so obvious that it is just blatant corruption. The Comptroller overseas such things as disability payments, as in the exposed but ignored fact that 97% of Long Island Railroad union employees retire on disability, despite working for one of the highest rated safety systems in the country. Photos of the disabled on the golf course are ignored, and these pensions are large, $100,000 per year plus and amazingly comprehensive health benefits for picking up tickets for 20 years.
No one in state power seems to want to downsize the powers of the comptroller, a significant lightweight politico. It's not personal. This system has been wrong forever. New York is an extremely corrupt state. The legal system is run completely by the lawyers, everything, on any issue, requires fault, meaning litigation. Every encounter with any state rule requires counsel, that means competing counsel to demand controversy and encourage judicial discretion, often meaning coercion and bribery. Something as simple as guardianship for someone with completely obvious dementia takes at least a year with attorneys on every issue, four in the case being experienced, plus financial advisors on the tab as well. In Virginia this takes at most six weeks, at less than 10% of the cost.
A starting point in the Comptroller issue must be a resolution to remove the pension funds from political control. Nothing is possible under the completely and bizarrely incompetent David Patterson but if he could be impeached... not possible I know, black, blind, and retarded is just too many covered classes, Spitzer was massively insecure... but in the future this seriously corrupt place needs change, or will the whole state just default to the New York City area, which has become an international city of wealth where the power of money and avarice competes to overrule the power of art and creativity, until catastrophe hits again.
posted by John Borden at 7:15 PM
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