Wednesday, June 25, 2008

State Employee Rally

State Employees

They rallied outside the Legislative Building. They put a full-page ad in The News & Observer. They called for initiatives not likely to be passed by this year's General Assembly. In all, about 200 members of the State Employees Association of North Carolina gathered behind the Legislative Building on Tuesday to call for a higher pay raise and collective bargaining rights. And in the newspaper, and in speech, the group urged legislators to strip State Treasurer Richard Moore of his authority as sole trustee over the state pension funds. "That's our money, so we shouldn't have one person playing with our money," said SEANC executive director Dana Cope.
The full-page newspaper ad cited state pension fund losses of $4 billion during the first quarter of 2008 as a reason for giving investment authority to a board of trustees. Prior to his speech, Cope said he believed a board would have limited the losses, even as markets in general lost money. "A board would have provided more sets of eyes," he said. Moore's office, though, released a letter sent to legislators on Monday, signed by a number of state retiree and local government organizations, stating that divesting the treasurer of sole investing authority would increase risks for the pension fund and undermine a strategy of slow but steady returns. The letter also called North Carolina's state employee pension funds "the envy of many across the country …"
Sara Lang, a spokeswoman for the treasurer's office, said the change supported by SEANC calls for study and debate, not scare tactics. "It is unfortunate that SEANC continues to scare retirees and public workers about their pension fund," Lang said. SEANC leaders also targeted legislators for not providing more substantial pay increases. Cope said the group's goal was to convince budget negotiators to raise state employees' raises to 3 percent, the same amount provided to teachers in both the House and Senate budgets. Boosting the pay hike from 2.75 percent to 3 percent would cost just $8 million, Cope said. (THE INSIDER, 6/25/08).

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