DiNapoli Says He’s Keeping Options Open On Control Board
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli did not rule out the possibility of a so-called “super control board” to manage the finances of fiscally precarious local governments, he said this afternoon at news conference in his Albany office.
But he says there’s been no conversation with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office about such a move, which is also drafting plans as well.
DiNapoli would not endorse a statewide board that would aid municipal governments on the verge of bankruptcy, but said a conversation needs to be done on what needs to be done to help localities.
“We don’t have a one-size-fits all strategy on control boards in the state, even with the ones that are in existence right now and we’re going to see if there might be some recommendations that we’ll make should there be a move to having additional oversight with control boards down the road,” DiNapoli said.
Cities across the state — Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse, Newburgh among them — are facing severe financial stress as a result of the great recession, frozen state aide and other factors.
Control boards are generally resisted by labor groups, and Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner was able to use the threat of such an entity in order to have police union members agree to concessions.
The fear for state government officials is having municipal governments declare bankruptcy on their watch, a move that the comptroller says he wants to avoid.
“I think the overall point is we may be in a situation where some municipalities may be in need of more oversight,” DiNapoli said.
He added, “Does it make sense to see if there’s a more standardized approach and a more comprehensive approach? I’m not arguing that today.”
A coalition of big-city mayors, which included several Cuomo allies like Albany’s Jerry Jennings and Yonkers’ Mike Spano, released a joint statement on Monday in response to the super control board move, which was decidedly lukewarm to the idea.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Nick Reisman on August 7, 2012 at 4:03 pm, and is filed under Comptroller. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |
Comments are closed.


Take Capital Tonight and the State of Politics blog with you everywhere you go with our iPhone app! The mobile application features our blog posts, interviews, and a report news tool to send us your political news tips.