Dan MacDonald to STRS board: STRS’s fiduciary responsibilities are for actives and retirees. I am looking forward to restorations for actives and COLAs for retirees.

Dan MacDonald's speech to STRS board

June 25, 2027

THROWN UNDER THE BUS

Mr. Chair and members of the Board, good afternoon. I am Dan MacDonald, an STRS retiree with 38 plus years of service and Executive Director of Local 279R, Northeast Ohio AFT retirees, regularly attending Board meetings since 2014.

Back in March, during the Executive Director’s report, a proposed FY 2027 Budget increase of 8.5% was warned. In April, a month later, during Public Participation I spoke against the 8.5% but later in that Board meeting a 9.8% increase FY 2027 Budget was presented. Then May comes, sorry that I was not here but home recovering from another hospital bout; a 6.2% amended budget was presented and approved.  I would love to take credit for the change, but some of the Ohio Retirement Study Council board members have a death grip on our organization, STRS, with roughly a $110 BILLION-dollar general fund. Some of our Board members reacted very positively to the deflation even pointing out that next year’s budget should be even less and another, that we might have been too lenient on the Executive Director's 2026 budget. 

My reaction was guttural and immediate.  If in his heart and if we believe he has integrity and our Executive Director thinks STRS would be better served with more AI or personnel, he should be able to present a budget with say, a 20% increase, and OUR Board should be doing the whittling back. Would I react in Public Participation? Yes, for sure, but we need our visionaries.  The budget is addressing millions of dollars while the investment department, a part of the budget, is earning STRS - actives, retirees - billions of dollars. On the state and federal level, legislators are angling for control. There is more than one legislator in Ohio that desires to become an Elon Musk, a trillionaire, and control of STRS is a steppingstone. Seriously, does this Board have trust in our Executive Director? If yes, you did not show it at last month’s meeting. He was “Thrown under the bus!”

STRS’s fiduciary responsibilities are for actives and retirees. I am looking forward to restorations for actives and COLAs for retirees.