Bloomberg Questions Comptroller’s Competence

NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't put much stock in City Comptroller John Liu's reports. The mayor was pretty explicit about his doubts in an interview with the New York Daily News on Wednesday.

“You know, I have to work with John and I'll try to help,” said Bloomberg, “and hopefully he'll eventually get staff and himself together where they can provide a real function and do a real analysis.”

Liu released a report in June forecasting that the city's pension cost would peak in 2016 and then grow at a slower rate than the city's economy, thereby using up a smaller portion of the budget. This would be good news for unions, which don’t want their pensions to be cut while the city tightens its belt.

The mayor wondered where Liu got his numbers from. Mark LaVorgna of the mayor's office noted that pension costs will likely continue to rise.

It's no secret that Liu is friendly with the unions. They contributed to his campaign for office. Of the 66 press releases on his website from this year, 17 are about pensions or unions. He's been to many of the major union rallies, and this wouldn't be the first time his accuracy in reporting on union issues has been called into question.