NC Increases Internal Management of State Pension System Investments

The 2014-15 budget that North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law does more than fund state functions: it also expands state control over state pension fund investments. PI Online reports that the budget provides for 10 new investment staff positions. 

North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell, who is the sole trustee for the state pension system, had sought 14 such new positions and argued that internal control would make plan investments more cost-effective. She argues that the savings the state realizes will more than make up for the cost of adding 10 new positions to the staff. 

With $90 billion in assets, the North Carolina system is the 9th largest U.S. public pension system. That, in addition to earlier controversy over investment of state pension funds, makes the new appointments especially important. 

Controversy over how information about the way state pension funds are invested gave rise to SB 878 and HB 1209, bills introduced in May and currently before the Senate Committee on Pensions & Retirement and Aging and the House Appropriations Committee, that seek to enhance the accountability and transparency of the North Carolina teachers’ and state employees’ retirement systems.