Colorado public pension board PROMOTES writing the legislature re: Divestment
Colorado PERA Board of Trustees warns of negative consequences of divestment Take Action!
Contact your legislators – urge them to weigh impacts of divestment on your pension
The Colorado PERA Board of Trustees approved a statement Thursday, August 23, 2007, that raises significant concerns about efforts to impose more divestment mandates on PERA. (To read the complete statement, follow this link.)
The PERA Board's statement responds to a recent legislative proposal that the pension fund divest from all investments in companies with business interests in Iran. Earlier this year, the Colorado Legislature required PERA to drop any investments with companies doing business in Sudan.
According to the statement issued by the Board, concerns with divestment include:
Significant costs that come with divestment, including transaction costs from selling investments, the costs of researching replacement investments, and the costs of reduced investment returns, among others. Funds contributed to PERA by employees and their employers immediately become part of a trust fund, so this money is no longer the property of the state or any other public employer. PERA's trustees have a fiduciary duty, or legal responsibility, to invest contributions for the sole and exclusive benefit of members and beneficiaries. Trustees cannot allow financial decisions that would undermine the funded status of the plan. Divestment of companies with significant operations in the United States and even Colorado could jeopardize U.S. jobs and could result in a "slippery slope." Several recent publications have called into question the wisdom of divestment efforts and have even argued that divestment mandates based on foreign policy goals are not effective.
Please contact your state representative and state senator today and urge them to carefully consider the serious consequences of divestment. We've made it easy to contact them and make your voice heard with PERA's Legislative Action Center tools.
Here's what we need you to do (it will only take a few minutes)
1. Click on the "TAKE ACTION" link in the upper right corner of this email.2. Review the draft email in the Editable Text box and make any changes you'd like. You can also personalize the letter by typing in your own message.3. Type in your name, home address and email when prompted. Thank you for your support on this important issue.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 7:36 PM
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