For the first time as New York state comptroller, Tom DiNapoli found himself between two primary opponents in a debate Thursday hosted by Spectrum News where he defended his role and record while two challengers attacked his longevity serving as the state’s chief financial officer and entrenchment in Albany politics overall.
Having been state comptroller since 2007, DiNapoli is currently the longest serving non-congressional statewide officeholder and seeking a fifth full term. Two candidates this time around launched Democratic primary challenges against him — Drew Warshaw, a former nonprofit housing executive and Port Authority official, and Raj Goyle, an entrepreneur, attorney and former Kansas state legislator. All three discussed — fiery at times — the state’s economic status, pension fund, data centers and more.
“In my next term, I look forward to growing our state pension fund, to protect the retirement security of our 1.3 million public workers in New York who depend on the strength of that fund, to continue our audits and investigations to make government more efficient so we can reduce the cost burden on New Yorkers and to help our state navigate the disastrous impact of the Trump policies, the policies coming from the D.C. Republicans,” DiNapoli said.
Warshaw and Goyle routinely attacked DiNapoli as being too passive on certain issues.
“We need change and someone who’s forward thinking, who will tackle this affordability crisis, lowering utility prices, building housing, investing in childcare and getting [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] the hell out of New York,” Goyle said.
Warshaw is a strong advocate for hiking taxes on the state’s wealthy.
“We are in the middle of budget negotiations and our chief financial office of the state of New York has no opinion on whether or not we should tax the wealthiest New Yorkers,” Warshaw said. “We have 139 billionaires. They can afford to live here. It’s the working New Yorkers who can’t and we need to tax the wealthiest among us so that we can pay for the promises that we’ve already made and the far more ambitious promises that we must make.”
DiNapoli said his two opponents do not understand the limits of the role of the office.
“They ascribe powers to the state comptroller like you’re the president, head of the UN and the pope. That’s not the job of the state comptroller guys,” DiNapoli said.
Goyle said DiNapoli’s tenure in Albany “is part of a culture that needs to go.”
“The reason we have Donald Trump back in office is because we didn’t have Democrats who knew how to fight and that’s who we need in this office,” he said.
Warshaw indicated Trump isn’t the only one DiNapoli won’t stand up to.
“We don’t have a state comptroller who is willing to challenge the governor and say ‘yes, ma’am, we do need to raise taxes on the wealthiest,’ ” he said.
On the issue of data centers, which lawmakers are proposing a three-year moratorium on new construction of, Warshaw supported a moratorium on investments in private equity firms that would finance those projects, mentioning a proposed massive $19.4 billion, 2.2 million square foot stream data center in Alabama, in Genesee County.
“It is going to suck up electricity and jack up electricity rates for Rochester Gas and Electric customers and for National Grid to the west of them,” he said.
“We believe in a community first strategy as far as data centers,” DiNapoli said, saying the investment decisions made on data centers need to be aware of local needs. He wrote a letter to big tech companies asking them to pay for their own local power and infrastructure upgrades rather than passing off those costs to New Yorkers.
“I don’t think there could be a better example of why we need a switch in the state comptroller than this issue itself. A letter? Is this a joke? A strongly worded letter when we have a national crisis on data centers? Of course we should be embracing a moratorium,” Goyle said.
The candidates also discussed Tier 6 reform, public funding for the new Buffalo Bills stadium and New York City investments.
Primary elections in New York will be on Tuesday, June 23. Early voting begins on June 13. The winner of the primary will face Republican Joseph Hernandez in November.
