More Stringer Mistakes
If you have money in a city pension fund, you might want to start worrying — because the guy who’s supposed to be watching them (and the rest of city government) is so busy playing politics that his office can’t even get its numbers right.
We’re talking about Comptroller Scott Stringer, who has used his office’s resources on a purely political hit-job — this time, a “report” breaking the dog-bites-man news that Team Trump has been getting tougher on illegal immigrants.
The document, out Thursday, blasts the “huge increases” in ICE enforcement in the city, blaming “racist, xenophobic Trump policies” for jumps of 150 percent in deportations and 88 percent in arrests between 2016 and 2018. Stringer calls for “greater protections for the families suffering a draconian rise” in ICE activity in the city.
“Draconian”? Buried in the report is this admission: “The first six years of the Obama Administration were marked by high levels of immigration enforcement.” Yet Stringer opted to compare the Trump era only to President Barack Obama’s last two years — after he’d greatly reduced enforcement. Trump, in other words, is just restoring the earlier status quo.
And why exactly is ICE enforcement bad? Stringer admits most (56 percent) deportations involve illegal immigrants who’ve also committed other crimes. Does he think they deserve even more protections than this “sanctuary city” already offers?
Most disturbing (at least for city employees) is Stringer’s trouble with basic math. This report had at least one minor error of basic division, corrected after a call from The Post.
That follows a report on housing that Stringer himself admitted had several numerical errors, and one on Airbnb rentals that an industry analysis firm said relied on “deeply flawed” data.
Even under John Liu, with all his eccentricities, the Comptroller’s Office did its math properly.
Stringer clearly thinks shabby “reports” like this will boost a future run for mayor. In reality, they raise doubts about his ability to do the job he has now.