Inside Government is a Q&A series that gives New Yorkers a glimpse inside the role of the elected officials who represent them. This edition of Inside Government with PoliticsNY features New York City Comptroller Mark Levine. Comptroller Levine serves as New York City’s chief financial officer with a number of vital responsibilities including conducting performance and financial audits of all City agencies, serving as a fiduciary to the City’s five public pension funds and providing comprehensive oversight of the City’s budget and fiscal condition.
What is one of the lesser-known roles of the comptroller that you believe constituents should know more about?
The comptroller’s office is best known for roles including budget oversight, City agency audits, and pension fund stewardship, but our mandate is much broader, extending to lesser-known important functions like issuing municipal bonds, which fund capital and infrastructure projects like building schools, housing and water systems. Our office also issues certificates of residence (official documents proving one lives in the five boroughs). And I sit on the board of the Met Museum!
What issues does your office help constituents address?
Our office sets and enforces the prevailing wage, which includes winning wage theft settlements for workers contracted on City projects. We audit, review, and offer recommendations for City agencies and programs to address shortfalls in effectiveness, transparency and efficiency that can affect the quality of City government services. We also process claims made against the City. Our office broadly provides independent oversight and a check on City government.
As an overseer of the City budget, how do you ensure constituent needs are well accounted for?
My goal is to ensure vital programs can continue to serve the New Yorkers who rely on them. That requires both advocating for those programs and identifying fiscal practices that threaten their long-term sustainability. With that goal in mind, I have also advocated for setting guardrails on the City’s Rainy Day Fund, so we can build the means to weather economic downturns and protect essential services when they are needed the most.
Since taking office in January, what have been your top priorities?
I wake up every day thinking about how I can best fulfill my fiduciary duty to the City’s retirees as steward of the pension funds. And I am just as focused on creating pathways to build more housing in the city. I am also laser-focused on bringing our spending back in line with revenue, expanding our economy, creating jobs, protecting New Yorkers from economic uncertainty, and leveraging technology to make City government run more efficiently.
Why did you decide to leave your previous office and run for comptroller?
This is a job I’ve been preparing for my whole life. Since founding a credit union in Washington Heights, I’ve spent my career working to broaden access to opportunity. As comptroller, this remains my focus, but the tools of the office, like budget oversight, pension fund stewardship, contract review and agency audits, offer the potential for impact at greater scale. I want to help foster a booming, growing economy that supports working New Yorkers.
