HERNANDEZ DEMANDS TRANSPARENCY OF DEI PENSION INVESTMENTS FROM DINAPOLI

 

Joseph Hernandez, Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller, demanded that Comptroller Tom DiNapoli provide transparency on the performance of the state's politically designated pension investments.

 

DiNapoli has committed $26 billion of the roughly $300 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund to climate-focused investments, with a stated goal of $40 billion. His office reports another $34.9 billion run through the Fund's Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise manager program. “There has been no clear reporting of a program-wide return for the SICS initiative or MWBE strategy that allows New Yorkers to evaluate those programs against a comparable benchmark,” explained Hernandez.

 

Independent research shows the strategies behind DiNapoli's ideological mandates don't deliver better returns. “New York pensioners trust DiNapoli with over $300 billion to deliver their retirement. They have the right to know how their money is being invested and the efficacy of those investments,” said Hernandez.

 

Hernandez points to an analysis of 18 ESG funds that found the average ESG portfolio ended 43.9% smaller than a similar S&P 500 index investment. From the analysis, only 2 of the 18 beat the S&P 500 benchmark over a 10 year period.

 

Hernandez also references that the widely cited McKinsey research that found companies with greater executive diversity had a 39% greater likelihood of financial outperformance failed independent replication in 2024. Minimal statistically significant relationships were found by researchers in the underlying public data.

 

“This is exactly why DiNapoli should release the performance of his ideological investments. Little data shows that they bring stronger returns, and I bet the data shows that,” explained Hernandez. According to recent polling, 71% of New Yorkers want the Comptroller to maximize pension returns rather than advance a political agenda.

 

"A fiduciary's job is simply to grow the fund and protect the pensioner," Hernandez said. "Every dollar routed through a political litmus test instead of a performance test is a dollar that isn't working as hard as it should for a retired teacher, nurse, or transit worker. New Yorkers’ retirement is no place to fight a culture war.”