State Treasurer Janet Cowell said this morning that the state's pension fund is down $16 billion from a year ago.

The fund, which pays retirement benefits for tens of thousands of state and local government employees, is valued at $60 billion, Ben Niolet reports.

A year ago, the fund was worth $77 billion. The drop represents a 19.7 percent decline in fund performance, a measure created by the fund's actuary.

Cowell said the fund is down because of the dramatic downturn in global markets. The state's treasurers have traditionally been conservative in how they invest the money, which is why the state's pension fund is faring better than other similar funds, she said.

As the markets have turned worse, the Treasurer's office has turned even more conservative, increasing its allocation in less risky, long-term investments.

"North Carolina is in better shape than almost any state," she said.

Former Treasurer Richard Moore like to tout the fact that the fund had more than enough money to pay its beneficiaries. That's still true, but the number is sliding, Cowell said. The plan is funded at 104.7 percent. Next year that number will slide to about 100 percent.

Cowell said all retirees will get their benefits.

"You're entitled to your money," Cowell said.

The loss in value likely means that the legislature will have to increase its contribution to employees retirement benefits by about $29 million for the next year. That means the tab for the legislature will be somewhere around $430 million. The legislature's burden will likely increase in 2010.

Employees contribute 6 percent of their checks to the fund. Erica Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the State Employees Association, which represents some 55,000 employees or retirees, said the organization has repeatedly urged the legislature to up their contribution to state employees retirement.

"That's been the weakest leg of the stool," Baldwin said.

Update: Post now includes more details.

Correction: Post now includes correct value of the fund a year ago. It also includes a better description of the change in performance.

The N.C. Association of Educators and the National Education Association have sent a mailer attacking Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore, Ben Niolet reports.

What the mailer says: "Important message for NCAE retirees. Just the facts: Has Richard Moore really managed our pension fund responsibly? Here are the facts. Fact: Hardworking teachers and state employees regularly contribute money to the pension fund creating a large surplus that Richard Moore inherited when he became State Treasurer. However, in the last four years, Moore has lagged behind his peers in pension management performance. Fact: Richard Moore has not provided the General Assembly with state-mandated reports detailing the performance of the money managers he hires. When asked for the reports, Moore said they were unavailable. Fact: Richard Moore supported cuts to federal entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and military retirement."

The background: Teachers and other state and local employees contribute 6 percent of their paychecks to the state pension fund, a $77 billion fund that Moore oversees. In 2006, employee contributions were $745 million, according to the Treasurer's Office.

The pension fund earned $5.7 billion that year on its investments and had to pay $2.7 billion in benefits. So the employees' contributions would not have even covered the amount the fund owed retirees that year.

The claim that Moore has lagged behind in pension management is based on information compiled by Wilshire Associates, an investment firm. The state's pension fund has not always done as well as others. For example, in 2007, the fund had an 8.3 percent return rate, which was lower than the median rate of 8.7 percent for funds of similar size. Moore has said his goal as treasurer is steady income and not home-run investments.

The fund is required by law to invest 37 percent of its assets in fixed-income investments, which offer slow but steady growth, a Moore spokeswoman said. The chart included on the mailer shows that in one of the four years, the state pension fund performed the same as other state pension systems.

The claim that Moore has not provided reports to the legislature was based on a line from a March article in Forbes magazine that was harshly critical of Moore. According to Moore's office and the legislature's Fiscal Research Division, Moore's office has been in compliance with its reporting requirements. The division was able to provide copies of some of those reports Wednesday. A year's worth of those reports are available on the treasurer's Web site.

The claim about Moore supporting cuts to entitlement programs is based on a response by Moore to a News & Observer questionnaire when Moore ran for Congress in 1994. The newspaper asked, "The 10 largest entitlement programs are Social Security, Medicare, deposit insurance, Medicaid, federal civilian retirement, unemployment compensation, federal military retirement, food stamps, Supplemental Security Income and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Which, if any, of those programs, would you support cutting to help reduce the federal budget deficit?"

He answered: "I think that I would support on a case by case basis cuts in any and all of those programs. If the way those programs were implemented does not make common sense and are not achieving the goals that they were specifically set up for, they should be changed. As an example, food stamps do not seem to be achieving — at least to a certain percentage of our population — the goals they were set up for. As a former federal prosecutor, I know there is a tremendous amount of fraud. In today's computerization, the concept of a coupon or a stamp may be obsolete and could result in tremendous cost savings."

Is the ad accurate? Not entirely. Employee contributions are a relatively small fraction of what the pension fund earns and did not create a surplus in the fund. In three of the past four years, the pension fund has not performed as well as other similarly sized funds. The claim that Moore has not provided state-mandated reports is false. And in 1994, he did say he supported cuts to entitlement programs if those programs were not working.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue is airing an ad criticizing the performance of her rival, Richard Moore, as state treasurer and his willingness to take campaign contributions from people on Wall Street, Ben Niolet reports.

What the ad says: “I’m Bev Perdue. I’m running for governor, and I sponsored this ad.” Announcer: “Listen to Richard Moore.” Video clip of Moore: “I want to be held accountable.” Announcer: “Accountable? As treasurer, Moore put $2 billion of state pensions into risky hedge funds. And increased fees paid to fund managers by 600 percent. Now Wall Street investors have given 1.5 million to his campaign.” Video clip of Moore: “I want to be held accountable.” Announcer: “Come on, Richard. Moore is for Wall Street. Not for us.”

The background: The state treasurer oversees a $77 billion pension fund for state and local government employees. In his two terms as treasurer, Moore has invested in hedge funds and other alternative investments. Since September 2002, the treasurer’s office has committed $741 million in hedge funds, which are complex and aggressive investments. The current value of the pension’s hedge fund investments is $920 million, according to the treasurer’s office.

As treasurer, Moore has dramatically increased the fees paid to money managers. The claim about increased fees is based on a March 2007 Forbes magazine article. Spokeswomen for Moore’s campaign and the treasurer’s office do not dispute the number and acknowledge the pension fund is paying more in fees under Moore. In fiscal 2007, Moore paid $155 million in fees to money managers, not including bonuses for exceptional performance. His predecessor paid $57 million in his last year in office. Moore’s staff says that the fees are part of running a modern, successful pension fund and that they are similar to — or less than — fees paid by comparable funds.

The claim about Moore’s fundraising is based on Moore’s campaign finance reports since he first ran for treasurer in the 2000 election. Moore’s publicly available finance reports show donations from plenty of people in the financial industry. The Charlotte Observer reported last year that since 1999, Moore had received more than $700,000 from donors affiliated with companies that did business with the treasurer’s office. Over nearly 10 years, Moore has raised $1.5 million from employees or family members of employees of firms or banks that do business with the pension fund, according to a spreadsheet provided by the Perdue campaign.

Those companies have offices across the country, including in North Carolina. It’s impossible to verify that every one of those donors is a “Wall Street” investor.

Is the ad accurate? Not entirely. It’s true that Moore has dramatically increased fees paid to money managers. And under Moore’s tenure, the pension fund has invested three-quarters of a billion dollars in hedge funds.

But the claim that he has put $2 billion in hedge funds is not accurate. Moore has raised $1.5 million from people with ties to businesses that work with the pension fund since he first ran for treasurer. But it’s doubtful that every one of those donors is a Wall Street investor.

State Treasurer Richard Moore said today that he has asked the Attorney General's office to take a second look at a new law that has led to the "unintended consequence" of just one insurance company having access to the addresses of roughly 200,000 state and local retirees to sell supplemental insurance policies.

That firm, State Insurance Services of Raleigh, is a politically-connected company that includes two men who have raised money for Moore in previous election campaigns, and a third who is a fundraiser for him in his bid for governor, reports Dan Kane. Moore made his plans official today by filling out the necessary paperwork with the State Board of Elections.

"We've already asked them specifically to look at the address pieces to say are you sure we can't give out addresses to anybody that wants them or to a broader list of folks, and we await their answer," Moore said.

Read more after the jump.

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North Carolina's public pension fund has been ranked second.

Standard & Poor's annual study ranked the state behind only Oregon, news that state Treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore trumpeted at a press conference Thursday.

North Carolina was ranked second last year as well.

"We have had a wonderful approach for slow, steady, solid, conservative returns," Moore said.

He said the pension fund did not invest in the most risky subprime-mortgage-linked securities, inclluding collateralized debt obligations. The few hedge funds that the state invested in are not directly affected by the ongoing credit crisis, he said.

"Unlike a whole lot of publicly run institutions in the country, we passed on all of them," Moore said. (Char-O)

Richard Moore backs a plan to use the market to address global warming.

The state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate announced today that he hopes to use the state's pension fund to invest in companies promoting energy efficient technology.

"As a large investor, North Carolina can help encourage the marketplace to support energy efficient opportunities that are also highly profitable," he said in a statement.

North Carolina joins a coalition of 50 U.S. and European institutional investors who are committing to investing $10 billion in so-called "clean technology" over the next two years.

The plan was announced at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk hosted by the Ceres coalition. Pension fund managers in California, Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania also signed the plan.

The agreement does not commit any of North Carolina's money, since the goal is collective.

"It's not binding," said Ceres spokesman Peyton Fleming.

It's safe to say that Charles Heatherly is not a fan of Richard Moore.

In a guest column in the Durham Herald-Sun Saturday, the former deputy state treasurer questioned the Democratic gubernatorial candidate's handling of the state pension fund.

"Despite Moore's frequent claims that North Carolina's pension trust fund is the second best funded in the nation, there is evidence that this claim may be overly optimistic," he writes.

It is not the first time Heatherly, who retired in 2001, has raised questions about Moore.

* In an Oct. 14, 2002, guest column in the N&O, he argued that the pension fund is not "sound" and attributed gains to Moore's predecessor, Harlan Boyles.

* In a Jan. 9, 2004, guest column in the N&O, he called Moore's TV ads for the state's unclaimed property fund "thinly disguised political ads."

* In a March 3, 2006, guest column in the N&O, he criticized Moore's political fundraising and called reports on the pension fund "overly optimistic."

He's also been quoted on those issues in several news articles.

Richard Moore is now answering records requests about state pensions.

The state treasurer, who is running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, did not support keeping pension information private, as seemingly required by a recent bill.

After Attorney General Roy Cooper said that the records were public, Moore's office began answering requests for pension information.

One that has been in the news is for state Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington Democrat who the House is currently considering expelling. 

Spokeswoman Sara Lang said that Wright's pension, if he were to have left the legislature on Tuesday, would be $892.20 a month when he hits age 60 in 2015. It could possibly be less if he is found guilty.

Attorney General Roy Cooper says information about the pensions of state employees should be made available to the public after all.

Cooper's office this afternoon released a letter it sent to state Sens. Tony Rand and David Hoyle about questions that have surfaced in the past week over public access to government pension information.

The questions started after the State Treasurer's Office, which oversees the state retirement system, said it could not release information on the pension of state Rep. Thomas Wright, a Wilmington Democrat who is facing criminal fraud charges, becauses of a recent change in state law. The office cited an opinion by the Attorney General's office saying the information should not be released.

But lawmakers who worked on the bill, which dealt primarily with a different public records issue, said they never intended to close access to such information. So Rand and Hoyle asked Cooper to take another look at the issue.

He did, and concluded that, "Such information, upon request, should be made available for inspection and copying."

Cooper, in a separate statement, said, "North Carolina has some of the strongest public records laws in the nation, and the interpretation of those laws should favor openness.”

The State Employees Association of North Carolina has sued state Treasurer Richard Moore over a public records battle.

In March, the association, which represents 55,000 state employees, filed a records request with Moore's office in the wake of a Forbes magazine article that highlighted Moore's heavy campaign contributions from investment managers that did business with the state's pension fund, which Moore oversees.

The association was seeking, among other things, records detailing who was managing the state's money. The association received some, but not all of what it requested, Ben Niolet reports.

A spokeswoman for Moore said in a recent interview she considered the matter closed, although the association had still not received records detailing how much money the treasurer's office spent on legal advice in its dealings with Forbes magazine.

Then, in October, the association renewed and expanded its records request.

The lawsuit, filed Friday morning is seeking a judge's order that would require Moore to turn over records. It is also asking a judge to force Moore's office to pay for legal and attorney fees.

Update: Sara Lang, a spokeswoman for Moore released a written response to the lawsuit.

"The Department of State Treasurer has followed the spirit, the intent and the letter of the public records law and welcomes a judge’s ruling to that point. We have provided nearly 900 pages of documents to SEANC, and Treasurer Moore stood before the group to personally answer their questions. We have worked diligently to fulfill these complicated, complex and often vague requests. It is disappointing that SEANC leadership would attempt to scare the 820,000 police, firefighters and teachers in the pension fund by calling into question the security of what the Wall Street Journal has called the second best public pension fund in America. It seems this lawsuit has more to do with political games than public information."