Public Pension Bonus Battles Begin
Earlier this week, I suggested that public pension systems could become embroiled in bonus battles that would play out on the front pages. At issue would be managers who get cut checks for beating market benchmarks, even if both the benchmarks and their individual performance are underwater. Well, it seems that such a situation has already occurred. A helpful reader points us to this story from South Carolina, where the state retirement system owed chief investment officer Bob Borden a $176,000 bonus for performance relating to the fiscal year ending June 30. South Carolina Treasurer Converse Chellis moved to block the payment, arguing that it was inappropriate given state budget cuts and state worker furloughs. Chellis took his fight to the system's investment commission
