Senator: Pensions should not be private

bkrueger — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:42:19 -0500

State employees' pensions are no longer public record?

Whoa, there.

That’s not what the authors of the law say they intended. Just the opposite, in fact.

Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake County Republican, said today that he and other senators were trying to open public records regarding all forms of compensation for state employees when they passed a bill last summer clarifying state personnel records.

The impetus was opening the hidden records of officials at Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte. But Stevens said the bill was even broader.

"We all agreed that any state money given to an employee should be fully disclosed," he said.

Stevens did offer an amendment on the floor, supported by the committee, which made it clear some records are not public, including whom one chooses as a beneficiary or which funds one chooses for 401K investments.

He was surprised to learn that the Attorney General's office had interpreted the bill for the State Treasurer's office as making state pension records secret.

"It is either being interpreted incorrectly or we'll have to go back and fix it," Stevens said. "That clearly wasn't the intent."

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Senator: Pensions should not be private