An article that explains it all (the governor illegally tampering with the STRS Board)

Pepperspectives

Magistrate: Gov. DeWine Broke the Law...

...Amid an Election, With Enormous Consequences

DAVID PEPPER
FEB 12, 2024 

You are going to want to read this. Believe me: 

Amid many things a state government is involved with, none has bigger financial or human consequences than its retirees’ pension funds. 

Billions of dollars. Thousands of retirees depending on the funds’ success. Careers and fortunes made.

It’s so much money, with so much consequence, that there are safeguards to make sure politicians don’t interfere with decisions about how those funds are invested. (In the past, state-level politicians have gone to jail for meddling in fund investments). 

For example, there’s a rule barring companies and individuals involved in pension fund investments from contributing to state-level politicians. And there are a variety of protections at the state level to keep state officials from meddling in pension funds. 

Regarding one enormous pension in Ohio, there’s a specific law that protects seated board members—once appointed or elected to a term—from being removed without cause.

That makes sense, because if pension board members can be switched in and out at the whim of politicians or others, that would open a huge risk of meddling in their decisions, as well as meddling with the board makeup overall. And especially in a state like Ohio, already rife with pay-to-play politics involving public funds, that would surely invite scandal. 

The board with that particular protection is the Ohio’s State Teachers Retirement Board. It manages a huge pension—more than $90 billion—for more than 150,000 retired teachers.

Read the full article here:

https://davidpepper.substack.com/p/magistrate-gov-dewine-broke-the-law?r=z1e3v&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email