From Brad Shannon at The Olympian:
The Service Employees International Union filed a citizen initiative to the Legislature on Thursday that could limit the state's investment in major private equity companies, specifically those getting questionable tax breaks or with poor records of treating workers and the environment.
Two things are notable here: First, apparently SEIU really can distinguish between an initiative to the Legislature and an initiative to the people.
Secondly, this idea would, as the State Investment Board points out, have a major detrimental effect on the investment strategies of the state and its effect on the beneficiaries of those investments as well as the taxpayers who would otherwise have to pony up to backfill the state's obligations.
SIB executive director Joe Dear said the initiative is troubling and would "destroy our ability to invest in our highest-returning asset class. If it's approved, it will cost taxpayers and beneficiaries millions in higher taxes and contributions."
...
The SIB would be authorized to take into account "additional investment risks posed by lack of transparency, poor employment practices, environmental impacts, and other indicators of irresponsible corporate behavior," the text of the measure says.
But Dear said, "No private equity firm that we want to do business with will do business with us under these terms."
That would harm pensioners, he said, because $13.9 billion of the pension system's $62.2 billion is invested in private equity, which has returned 12.6 percent over the past decade compared with about 7.9 percent for pension holdings as a whole.
Apparently SEIU is serious about the initiative, and Shannon perhaps unintentionally saves the best line for last:
Cook said SEIU is serious about pushing the measure.
"You've seen us run initiatives. We'll spend whatever it costs," she said.
Indeed.
