Over at Pension360, Ted Ballantine has an excellent article outlining the $13.3 million in bonuses handed out to the members of the Wisconsin Investment Board. The $13.3 million in bonuses is the most ever handed out by the Board.
Everyone appreciates a pat on the back for a job well done.
But auditors are raising concerns about whether the Wisconsin State Investment Board, the entity that handles investments for the state’s pension funds, went a little overboard by handing out $13.3 million worth of bonuses in 2013—the most ever handed out by the Board.
The Legislative Audit Bureau, the agency set up by Wisconsin to evaluate and audit other state agencies, is asking the Investment Board to review its compensation policy in light of the bonuses.
Bonuses included, the overall compensation the Board paid employees was 14 percent higher than the median among its peers, according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
As Ballantine noted in his article, the record-setting $13.3 million in bonuses were handed out despite the fact that the year-to-date returns for both pension funds managed by the Investment Board came in below their respective benchmarks.
On seeing that TC-PP article over the weekend, my first consideration was that Walker would use the “concerns,” as an excuse to get his money grubbing hands in and re-vamp the State Investment Board policy to somehow shift the funds to benefit partisan campaign donors and further harm state workers depending on the retirement fund remaining strong and remaining out of the grip of any partisan motivation.
Right to work for nothing and threats to the continued solvency of the fund are fully withing the Walker private playbook that won’t be discussed unless and until he is re-elected. He’s no doubt got a few bombs up his sleeve. To think otherwise would be foolish.
Yep. Insane not to take the lump sum at retirement. Walker is going after this money if he’s re-elected.
And we missed seeing this in newspapers in-state, how?