John C. Liu

Since January 1, 2010, John C. Liu has served as the 43rd Comptroller of the City of New York. An independently elected citywide official, his mandate is to protect and enhance the fiscal health of the City. As the City’s Chief Financial Officer, Comptroller Liu has sharpened the tools of his office to make government more efficient and accountable to the people he serves. Highlights since assuming office include:

· As custodian of the City’s pension funds, Comptroller Liu has enacted reforms to eliminate “pay-to-play” and ensure best practices in the investment-making process to maximize pension investments for the 700,000 retirees and beneficiaries who belong to the pension systems.

· To meet the infrastructure needs of tomorrow, the City has issued more than $8.4 billion to finance its capital program since Comptroller Liu took Office. The City has also executed several re-financings that collectively have generated nearly $188 million in budgetary savings. For one of these re-financings, the City issued a Request for Proposals that resulted in a minority-owned firm being named co-book running senior manager. This particular transaction saved NYC taxpayers more than $84 million.

· To secure capital funds for public schools, Comptroller Liu successfully lobbied Congress for a 100 percent subsidy rate for Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs), which provide a zero-interest cost financing tool for the construction, repair and rehabilitation of the City’s public schools.

· To better manage community benefits agreements with private developers receiving public subsidies to build large-scale projects, Comptroller Liu launched a Task Force that recommended a framework for a more transparent, predictable and accountable process to guide such development in the future.

· As part of the Comptroller’s ongoing efforts to increase transparency in City government, he launched Checkbook NYC, an online tool and one of the most comprehensive initiatives in the nation, to provide taxpayers unprecedented access to information on how the City spends billions of dollars.

· By utilizing the power of shareholder resolutions, Comptroller Liu has negotiated with large corporations to disclose and publish their political expenditures, increasing accountability to the shareholders and ensuring that contributions are aligned with shareholder interests.

Previously, John Liu served in the New York City Council for eight years, representing District 20 in Queens and served as Chair of the Council’s Transportation Committee. Significant accomplishments as a legislator included: exposing financial irregularities at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); shepherding bills through his committee designed to enhance administrative efficiency; and enacting legislation that ensures equal access to City services regardless of language ability. Prior to joining the City Council, John Liu managed a team of actuaries working on some of the largest pension plans in the country.

Hailed as a “Trailblazer” and “Pioneer,” John Liu’s historic elections as the first Asian American elected in the City – both to the City Council in 2001 and as City Comptroller in 2009 – were milestones for Asian Americans in New York and across the nation.

Comptroller Liu immigrated to New York at the age of five. He is a proud product of New York City public schools beginning with kindergarten at Public School 20 in Queens and graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. He went on to Binghamton University, where he earned his degree in Mathematical Physics. He lives in Flushing, Queens with his wife, Jenny, and their son, Joey, several blocks away from his first home in the City.