Sudan Issue

[IllinoisFF]

The state law will prohibit any investment in any company that does business with/in Sudan. The advise we have received is we need to get out of every mutual fund we have. No fund will certify they are 100% Sudan free.

How are other funds reacting to this new state law??

Yes, enforcement will be difficult, but that does not give any fund the right to disobey it. I'd hate for an angry councilmember to drop a dime on any fund.

[mfdff2]

We are in the process of getting out of the funds that we have connected to Sudan, but you don't have to dump all of them right away and loose abunch of money on penalties.Do it over a period of time, invest in other markets, we have found thehousing markets have been good for making money also check with other investment groups, it was not hard for us to get out of our Sudan accounts.

[IllinoisFF]

Sudan

I know it's not hard to get out of them and i know we have until July to get out. but is everyone pulling out of every single mutual fund?

We have been advised that no qualifying mutual funds will certify themselves as being 100% compliant. which means by law we all need to get out of every mutual fund.
I think we will take a big performance hit by getting out of all mutual funds.

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Great news !

There has been a permannent injuction barring enforcement of The Illinois Sudan Act. This was decided by Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois Eastern Division.
While no one supports genocide, this was a bad "feel good" law.

[ChiefReason]

Mikey:
There's a good article on this in USA Today-today's edition.
It's amazing.
CR

[F18Wub]

From the AFFI Webpage

Two Senate bills that would have a detrimental effect on professional firefighters and our pension funds passed Senate committees this week.

Senate Bill 1166 was originally a “shell” bill, which means it was introduced, but had no substantive language in the bill. Amendment 1 to SB 1166 would have a very negative impact on local fire and police pension funds.

The amendment states that in provisions concerning investments by downstate police pension funds and downstate firefighter pension funds, if a pension fund's investment in certain accounts or funds exceeds certain limitations or a pension fund fails to file an annual report with the Public Pension Division within 3 months after the due date of the annual report, then the Public Pension Division shall immediately notify the State Board of Investment established under Article 22A of the Pension Code, the Auditor General, and the General Assembly, whereupon, by operation of law, all authority and responsibility for managing the pension fund's assets shall immediately lie with the State Board of Investment, who shall have sole authority and responsibility for managing those assets until 3 consecutive annual reports filed with the Public Pension Division demonstrate that all investments and practices comply with the law.

We are working with the Senate sponsors, and the leadership of the Senate to work towards addressing the issues that caused concerns for Senators. We are working diligently to defeat this legislation, and are asking for your assistance. Please write, call, or fax your State Senator and ask them to OPPOSE SB 1166 as amended, as this will have a very detrimental effect on your local pension fund.

Senate Bill 1475 was originally a bill that would have changed the definition of Catastrophic Injury” under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act. The sponsor of the bill, Senator Kimberly Lightford, has asked that all interested parties have discussions to express their concerns with this issue. While that request takes place, amendment 1 to SB 1475 was adopted in Senate Labor Committee, which would “shell” the bill, or strip out all the substantive language out of the original bill, in hopes that an agreement may take place. Please see the March 9, 2007 Legislative Update on the background to this bill.

From what i am hearing, nothing official of course, but this is relatitory in nature because of the Sudan Issue. Can't even speak to how wound up my pension board president is over this crap.

[MIKEYLIKESIT]

Wub, I am no genius but that was the first thing I thought when I read who the original sponsor was. Hell, even the chiefs, who are in up in arms about HB988 (which dosent even effect my department) are lining up and asking for help in opposing the pension bill.

[F18Wub]

Interesting though how the bill only seems to affect the downstate fire and police, and not the legislator's pension fund. I can think of a few senators who probably won't be getting the endorsement they have gotten in the past.