Outside of the state of California, which has the large CALPERS pension fund, I don’t see much, if any, coverage in the business section related to state pension funds. However, they are an untapped source of information, and stories, and business writers in every state should be cultivating pension fund managers who operate the state employees retirement system and the state teachers reirement system as sources.
A case in point is the story posted today on the Web site of my local newspaper, The (Raleigh) News & Observer. The state pension fund has decided to withhold its 11 million votes at tomorrow’s Exxon Mobile annual meeting to protest the exorbitant retirement package given the outgoing CEO.
Think about it. These penion funds own stock in dozens and dozens of companies. Many of them are investors in companies in the state in which they operate. And because many of them are state employees, they’re used to talking to the media.
See the N&O story here.
