Martha Stark was the Finance Commissioner of New York City. A tax attorney, she served as Finance Commissioner in the Cabinet of Mayor Michael Bloomberg from 2002 until 2009. She previously worked for the Manhattan Borough President, served as a White House Fellow at the United States Department of State and for the Finance Department before becoming commissioner. On April 28, 2009 Stark tendered her resignation due to stories fueled by people at Finance who were opposed to changes that she made in the agency to better serve the public. Her detractors seized on her romantic relationship with someone who she met while Finance Commissioner who had left the agency three years before she was asked to resign. While it's clear that Stark's actions were not a violation of the City's conflict laws, she resigned because she didn't want to cause the Mayor distractions during his re-election for a third term. Stark was the third longest serving Finance Commissioner in the City's history; and the longest serving Finance Commissioner since 1964.
In January 2007, she applied to the New York State Legislature for election to the vacant office of New York State Comptroller, following the resignation of former Comptroller Alan Hevesi. She testified before the Legislature and the search committee and was selected as one of three finalists by the search committee consisting of former State Comptroller Edward Regan, former State Comptroller Carl McCall and former New York City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, upset that a member of the Assembly was not on the finalist list, announced that the new comptroller would not come off the list of finalists and would be an assemblymember.[1]
On Feb. 7, 2007 when the Legislature voted, Stark was one of two names put into nomination, along with Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli of Long Island, Silver's choice. The final vote was 150 for DiNapoli and 56 for Stark. Stark's main support came from Democrats in the Senate, along with Republicans in both chambers. Stark's support in the Senate implies she had backing from Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Lt. Gov. David Paterson. Spitzer and Paterson both announced they preferred a comptroller being chosen off the list of finalists.