New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli was the speaker at a media breakfast held at Arent Fox’s New York office on July 8. The event, sponsored by Arent Fox and Manhattan Media, the publisher of the newspapers City Hall and The Capitol, was attended by more than 80 guests, including clients, business leaders and political figures.

Arent Fox partner Peter Fitzpatrick delivered the opening remarks, introducing Comptroller DiNapoli, who as chief fiscal officer for the state, is responsible for managing and protecting state and local pension funds, auditing the spending practices of all state agencies and local governments, reviewing the New York State and City budgets, reviewing and approving all state contracts, and administering the State Oil Spill Fund.

Comptroller DiNapoli discussed a variety of issues, including the state of the economy and its impact on New York's pension fund investments, saying at one point in reference to the current statutory allocation limits for high performance alternative investments classes, such as private equity and real estate:

“The long and the short of it is, this has been a tough year. We are still going to end up ahead of our peers. So I think that it shows that we’re on the right track. The real question becomes, if this is going to be a sustained challenge in terms of getting the rate of return that we’d like to get, at what point will that have an impact in terms of driving up contribution rates—something we’d like to avoid. We probably need to work with our Legislature next year. People don’t realize that New York State operates under a legal list system, so there are limitations by statute on where we can put our investment dollars. As I mentioned, the strong performers have been private equity and real estate. Those are still going to categorize as alternative investments. And we have a statutory cap on how much we can put there, we’re getting close to that amount. We may need to go back to the Legislature and the governor and suggest raising that cap so we can put more money into those categories to continue to be ahead of the curve, as far as our pension fund.” 

The comptroller answered “on the record” questions put to him by the editor of City Hall and The Capitol and “off the record” questions from members of the audience.

To view photographs of the event, please click here.

Arent Fox's New York office will host a second “On/Off Record Breakfast” with Manhattan Media on September 12, 2008, when the featured guest will be the New York City comptroller and all-but-certain mayoral candidate William Thompson, with opening remarks again being delivered by Arent Fox partner Peter Fitzpatrick.