New York City Must End Its Investments in Tesla

Justin Brannan is a member of New York City Council, and is running to be the New York City comptroller.

Decades before I ran the New York City Council budget committee, before I ran for office or got near politics at all, I was playing for punk bands up in dark, graffitied basements with ceilings that grazed your head and busted PAs that blew out if you played too hard. 

Through our music, we called out corruption, control, and the people who abuse power. We slept on concrete floors, ate white rice with duck sauce for dinner, and chased our dream of touring the world. It’s that same punk ethos that I bring to my work in the New York City Council every day: fighting corrupt systems, calling out bullshit, and standing up for what you believe in — not what’s convenient, or popular, or polite.

Today, I represent southern Brooklyn in the New York City Council, and now I’m running to be New York City comptroller, the guy in charge of managing nearly $300 billion in public pension assets and keeping the mayor honest. It’s not glamorous. It’s not flashy. But it’s where the money moves — and where we can decide whether to invest in our values or betray them.

Which brings me to something I’ve been saying loud and clear and longer than anyone in the race on the campaign trail: When it comes to the $300 billion in pension assets, we need to get our money out of Tesla. 

Not because hating on Elon Musk is in vogue — but because it’s financially and morally reckless not to. 

New Yorkers may know me for my punk bona fides, but I can read a balance sheet: Tesla’s stock is a house of cards, held together by hype, volatility, and the whims of a man reportedly high on ketamine and spiraling into political extremism. So far this year, the stock is down over 14 percent, and its profits have collapsed by a staggering 71 percent year over year. Sales are plunging across the globe — down sharply in Europe, while Tesla faces fierce competition in China. 

We could be holding a lemon, and when the city’s got $1.2 billion invested in Tesla through our public pensions, you can’t afford to wait around to find out.

Then there’s Musk himself: a man who’s become a laughingstock, a national security risk, and a threat to our democracy. He cut $80 million in allocated funds from New York when Donald Trump let him run free with his DOGE boys. Musk has threatened to gut Medicaid, Social Security, the 9/11 health fund, veterans services — all the programs our retirees rely on. He doesn’t care about us. And we’re giving him $1.2 billion of NYC retirees’ money?!

Yeah, no. No fucking way. 

If you’re using your empire to bankroll Trump, gut our city, screw our seniors, and cheer on authoritarianism, all while your company collapses, your stock doesn’t belong in the pension funds of the biggest city in the country. 

We should be putting our money where our values are, and, as comptroller, I will use my responsibility as a fiduciary to make smart, steady investments. Tesla is none of those things. 

We’ve done it before, and we didn’t wait for permission. New York City divested from fossil fuels when they said it wasn’t possible. We divested from gun manufacturers. We ditched companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. Tesla is our next test.

My job will be managing billions in retirement savings for the people who built this city. So, no, this city is not going to invest in a company led by someone who is actively hostile to them.

This isn’t about making news. It’s about delivering solid, steady, and stable returns for our city and our pensioners.

We invested in Tesla years ago because we bought the sales pitch: innovation, climate progress, the future. But look around. This isn’t the future we want, and we have the power to say no. We should use it. 

New York City has an opportunity to send a message that we won’t bankroll billionaires who actively bet against working people. It starts in New York, and other cities can — and should — do the same.

I may have swapped power chords for policy papers, but I’m still fighting for the people who don’t get a seat at the table.

As a wise man from Washington, D.C. famously said: “I don’t wanna hear it, know you’re full of shit.”