State Pension Fund and my experience with the legislative process.

Today the house finance committee met to discuss the SB 558 which would increase the possible allocation to alternatives for the pension fund.   I blogged on this yesterday.  A friend and I decided to go downtown to see the action.   The bill had been voted on in the senate and had passed almost unanimously.  Next it was heading to the house via some potential revisions at the house finance committee.   (All this is new to me - but I had a lesson in NC civics this morning!).

I decided to speak up and voice my concern (as a concerned tax payer) that moving to more alternatives will not generate higher returns, but will lead to much higher fees.   The vote was close - 14-13 in favor of the bill - and was reported (and tweeted by) Pensions and Investing Magazine.

#PensionPlans North Carolina takes step closer to higher alternative investment limits http://t.co/yupAk4CKL3
— Pensions&Investments (@pensionsnews) July 17, 2013

But all is not lost - I also got to meet some of the Democratic Caucus and (separately) the leader of the Senate - Phil Berger - to express the concerns about these very high fee investments.  These products are not a guarantee of higher returns - in fact quite the opposite.  Hopefully these folks will be able to stop the passage of this bill.

Anyhow, the legislature session is winding up, so we'll see what happens.