A letter to the editor: HB 151 goes too far

"I'm grateful that they, not I, will have to explain this to the retired police officer manning a metal detector at the courthouse in order to pay his health-insurance premiums."

House bill to limit investments goes too far
Columbus Dispatch, May 22, 2007

Republican state Reps. Josh Mandel of Lyndhurst and Shannon Jones of Springboro evidently don't believe roller-coaster equity markets and skyrocketing healthinsurance costs present sufficient challenges to Ohio's public-pension boards.

Retirement-system portfolio managers are obligated under current law to maximize investment returns while avoiding unnecessary risk. House Bill 151, sponsored by Mandel and Jones, would change all that and put political posturing ahead of the welfare of retired public servants. Not investing in firms that do business with Iran sounds great until you read the bill and consider how many companies maintaining significant facilities in our state would be blacklisted. According to a report prepared for the State Teachers Retirement System, the bill would ban investments in 140 companies employing more than 50,000 Ohioans.

These are not Iranian companies or companies that derive a major part of their profits from dealing with Iran. They are businesses that, in the words of the bill, "engage in commerce of any form" with Iranians, no matter how insignificant. To make matters worse, the Mandel-Jones bill does not affect just Ohio's public pension plans. Its ill-considered prohibitions apply with equal force to any public investor, such as the state treasurer and the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

The proponents of this legislation make no claim that it is based on sound economic policy. On the contrary, they would specifically shield a public investor from liability for breaching its fiduciary duty when complying with the bill's provisions. Mandel and Jones apparently think that bad investments made for good reasons are OK.

I'm grateful that they, not I, will have to explain this to the retired police officer manning a metal detector at the courthouse in order to pay his health-insurance premiums.

JEFFREY R. ALLEN
Westerville