Letter to the Editor: Legislators should keep hands off pensions

Columbus Dispatch
Monday, June 25, 2007

If I had chosen to work for anyone other than an Ohio county, my private retirement money (which would be taken out of my paycheck and invested by the company for which I worked) could be invested anywhere.

However, the General Assembly says my private money, which was invested by the Public Employees Retirement System, cannot be invested in Honda, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Ford, Boeing, etc ("Lawmaker's arm-twisting gets Ohio pensions to divest," Dispatch article, June 8).

The money still belongs to me, but our legislators don't seem to understand that and have coerced the retirement systems to take out all of their monies invested in Ford, GE, etc.

As a private citizen, I can invest in these. All residents of Ohio can invest in these. The president of the United States can invest in these. Other investment groups can invest in these. Our governor can invest in these. Even individual members of the Ohio House and Senate can invest in these.

After all, Coke, Ford and GE are on the New York Stock Exchange and open to everyone in America, except those who work for counties in Ohio, as teachers in Ohio, in Ohio police departments and fire departments.

How American is this action taken by the Ohio House? I now wish I had had a choice of investment groups. I would have chosen a fund that the House does not have any influence over.

Of course, the House has no right to tell the pension systems in Ohio how to invest the private monies of the individuals in the investment funds.

But this is probably the first un-American action taken by the House, and it wants to see just how far its influence will go. You may be next!

After all, the $100 you invest in Ford (as, for example, an Ohio citizen) just might be supporting Iran, which allegedly is helping to kill Americans in Iraq. But if the Americans were not in Iraq, Iran could not be so accused.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY
Granville

Honda... and many other Ohio companies have been quickly (wonder why?) removed from the original list that appeared on the ORSC website. Imagine that!! Some of our(?) politicians discovered that they were about to bite the hand that fed them!! Wiser heads finally came to the rescue and Mr. Mandel got a little egg on his face out of this one!! ~ John Curry