Really, Bill Ceverha Must Go

by: Matt Glazer

Wed Dec 13, 2006 at 11:20 AM CST

Were you as astounded as I was to read the article in the Austin American Statesman this morning about the dismal performance of the Employee Retirement System? 

If the year ended Sept. 30, the employee fund's investment return of 9.6 percent was in the bottom 10 percent of $1 billion-plus public pensions tracked by Callan. Returns were similarly dismal for the two-, three- and five-year periods ended Sept. 30.

Attaboy! 

I guess the bottom 10% is exactly the kind of return you should expect when a BANKRUPT LOBBYIST is appointed to the ERS Board?  Yep, you guessed, bankrupt Bill Ceverha again. 

As a future state employee, I'd like to personally thank Speaker Craddick for that stunningly brilliant appointment.  I'm glad to see him putting the best interest of Texas employees and retirees over his own personal politics.  After all, who's more qualified to manage $23 billion than Tom DeLay's indicted treasurer who cooked the TRMPAC books and broke state laws in the process.

Even though the investment performance was dismal, maybe we should give bankrupt Bill the benefit of the doubt. 

Perhaps he was too busy counting his "gifts", and cashing those checks from Bob Perry, Harlan Crow, Boone Pickens and Earl Nye to do his due diligence this past year.

Allegedly being the party of fiscal responsibility, why don't the Republicans simply fire the bankrupt lobbyist who's managing the money?  Did you ever think that might be the problem? 

This is a classic play from the corrupt Republican right, and strangely coincides with what Rick Perry is encouraging at TRS (where he has asked that investment fund to invest in the companies to whom he gives grants from his high-tech slush fund - the emerging technology fund). 

Play out the scenario - these pension funds will now be used as the catalyst to create a whole new generation of Republican donors.  Hedge Fund A, Real Estate Investment Trust B, and Venture Capitalist C get multi-million dollar contracts to invest billions of state dollars.  To whom do you think their political contributions will go?  Probably ain't gonna be Lon Burnam or any of the other strong Democratic reformers.