Janet Cowell may no longer be a senator, but she's still interested in legislation.
The Democratic state treasurer is lobbying for at least 11 bills in the General Assembly this session, most of which affect her office:
Investment Risk Reduction: Give treasurer's office more flexibility on types of investments for the state pension fund.
Stimulus Reconciliation: Authorizes state to issue different kinds of debt to take advantage of the federal stimulus package.
Treasurer Transparency: Expands treasurer's Investment Advisory Board and sets a standard for assessing decisions.
Property Protection: Limits amount that businesses or individuals can charge for retrieving property held in escheat by the state.
Public Campaign Financing: Expands public campaign finance program to include state treasurer among other offices.
Electronic Reporting: Requires banks and insurance companies reporting large amount of escheats to use state-approved software.
Data Sharing: Permits N.C. Department of Revenue to share certain tax information with the treasurer's office.
Energy Savings Contracts: Removes the cap on energy saving contracts, requires life-cycle cost analyses of conservation measures, among other things.
Pension Corrections: Makes technical corrections to the statutes covering the pension fund and similar state funds.
Retirement COLAs: Addresses cost-of-living adjustments for retirees under the state pension fund and judicial pension fund.
Fire and Rescue Pension: Increases the monthly payment for members of the Firemen's and Rescue Squad Workers Pension Fund.