Ohio SB 161 as viewed from a fellow public retiree in Colorado

Wake Up, Ohio!
June 17, 2007

John, I found SB 161 at sudandivestment.org so I didn't spend a lot of time on it. In the past year I've read a lot of divestment bills but the Ohio SB 161 is way out of the norm. What caught my eye and really shocked me was that the Ohio Sudan divestment bill was so different from the standard model and also much different from Colorado's Sudan divestment bill. The standard bill gives the public pension fund basic oversight for determining which companies will be divested. Then that is reported to the legislature. In Ohio's bill the Sudan Council determines which companies to divest and tells the pension fund to do it. In reading the last ten pages of SB 161 it appears companies can be divested based on 20 months retroactive information. In other words, if certain companies currently no longer contribute to "genocide", they can still be determined by the Sudan Council to be divested based on 20 months old information. There are no safeguards or system of oversight for the Sudan Council.

It's due to be voted by the Ohio Legislature Finance Committee on June 23 unless they change that date. Everyone should read SB 161, especially the last ten pages.