Budget & Control Board 8% Decision

Without having done any analysis of my own, I am initially disappointed in the Budget & Control Board’s recent decision not to lower the expected return on investment from 8% to 7.25% as Governor Sanford had advised. I personally would love to see 8% returns on my own investments, but right now it ain’t happening, so I am ready to see how the people managing our state’s investment funds are going to acheive that.

The Governor’s point about the market showing a 5.3% gains over a 100 year period should also not be lost on the public in this matter.

I am also disappointed in the media’s coverage of this decision. The board’s decision was 4 to 1, but in no paper is mentioned who the dissenting votes were cast by. Just to back up a little, the Budget and Control Board is made up of:

1. Governor, Mark Sanford

2. State Treasurer, Converse Chellis

3. Comptroller General, Richard Eckstrom

4. Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Hugh Leatherman

5. Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, Daniel Cooper

I am very interested in what information was driving the decisions of the four people to put the return on our state’s investments at 8%, particularly the Treasurer and the Comptroller, and I’m not sure why in depth statements from these people were not published in the press regarding the issue.

I would also be interested in a statement from the Budget & Control Board’s Director, Frank Fusco regarding the issue if he played any role in the decision.

Again, without having the financial information in front of me, I think that Governor Sanford’s approach was the conservative way to go, and that the board’s decision was a more liberal way of going regarding the management of our state’s funds.