A Better Breed of Politician

I would like to thing that the Commonwealth Kentucky has a better breed of politician than other governments.

For instance, there are the politicians involved with the San Diego pension system, that is under funded by $2 billion dollars, or the Baltimore City Retirement System that is heading the wrong way. Then there is Illinois Teachers Plan sinking almost a billion bucks in the hedge funds.

Of course let us not forget the Ohio public pension and workers' compensation funds public pension and workers' compensation funds investing $215 million in a Bermuda hedge fund.

For a general guide to what’s wrong with pension funds take a look at Speech by Edward Siedle at Florida Atlantic University, School of Accounting, “Issues in IT and Compliance”.

But let’s take a look at the Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) and the legislature.

First, KRS with $16 billion in assets generates nearly $50 million a year in fees paid to money managers, brokers, lawyers & consultants.

Second, the House Democratic Caucus only reports donations from Registered Lobbyists. The Democratic Caucus is a PAC whose sole purpose is to insure the re-election of member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Third, in 1993 KRS procured an ethics opinion which gave them a legal license to for money managers and attorneys to give to the House Democratic Caucus.

…..you wish to know whether persons and companies who hold personal service contracts with the Kentucky Retirement Systems to advise the Systems' Board of Trustees are considered executive agency lobbyists. These individuals or companies may be hearing officers, investment advisors, actuaries, outside legal counsel, real estate managers, medical examiners, and others. Secondly, you ask whether entities who contact the Retirement Systems in order to be considered for providing investment or other services are considered executive agency lobbyists. ……..

The Commission believes that individuals and companies who hold personal service contracts with the state and are advising the Retirement Systems under the terms of their contract are not engaged in executive agency lobbying activity and thus, are not executive agency lobbyists.

Now I guess we could assume that the $50 million in fees goes to companies that never give to the House Democratic Caucus, but we really don’t know. It is equally possible that there is a major funding source for the House Democratic Caucus from lobbyists that is totally and legally hidden from view.

We've already established that the Legislature has abdicated oversight of the Kentucky Retirement Systems, so maybe it really doesn't matter how much money these non-lobbyists give to the Democratic Caucus.

But the bottom line is we just don’t know what is going on. The issue here again is transparency in government.

Like I said at the beginning, maybe Kentucky politicians are a better breed than those in other locations, but on the other hand we could just be watching natural selection in progress.

The stupid ones are getting culled from the herd, while those in Kentucky are still ahead of the regulatory lions.