Last year's market volatility made for a small return for the state pension fund, which gained just over 2 percent in 2011.
The fund clocked in at $71.8 billion at the end of December, said State Treasurer Janet Cowell in a statement.
"The fund was not able to overcome rough stock market performance brought on by conflicts in the Middle East, the debt crisis in Europe, and the first ever downgrade of sovereign debt in United States history," Cowell said in a release.
The heads of the state's two local government associations each make more than $200,000 annually, according to records from the state treasurer's office and interviews with both men.
Ellis Hankins, executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities, is paid $207,874, while David Thompson, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, earns $204,081.
Both declined to disclose their salaries and other operational expenses in an article in Sunday's News & Observer that reported both associations are allowed to participate in a public pension plan despite their stance that they are not public agencies. Local governments, financed by taxpayers, can be forced to make additional payments to the pension system if investment gains don’t cover promised benefits.
Some say the associations should have to open their books if they want to belong to a pension plan that is run by the state treasurer's office and requires the publicly funded associations to match employee contributions.
On Monday, the treasurer's office released at The N&O's request the most recent monthly salaries for Hankins and Thompson. The treasurer's office collects that information to help accurately track pension contributions.
Once aware that The N&O had that information, both men confirmed their annual salaries.
Thompson is a former manager for Hertford, Stanly, Henderson and Durham counties who became the county association's second leader in 2005. He said the association sets his salary based on what his counterparts make in other large states such as Texas, Florida and California, and on the compensation paid to county managers in North Carolina.
Hankins served as the league's general counsel from 1982 to 1994 and then returned as executive director in 1997. He said his salary is set by the league's board of directors each year after "an extensive performance appraisal discussion."
Their pay is slightly lower than the leaders of Wake County's two biggest municipalities. Wake County Manager David Cooke and Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen each make roughly $220,000 a year.
The league has more than 90 employees and the county association has 36. Both organizations lobby state lawmakers, run self-insurance pools for their member municipalities and provide training for municipal officials. Much of the associations' funding comes from taxpayers through the dues that municipalities or counties pay.
To belong to the state pension system, the associations and their employees each have to kick in roughly six percent of the employees' salaries.
Pensions are set in part by an employee's four highest consecutive years of pay. If Hankins and Thompson retired with full pensions based on their current salaries, Hankins would receive an annual pension of $115,370, while Thompson's pension would be $113,265.
Uncle Sam wants you. Just in case you are owed a pension.
The U.S. government is trying to locate 37,640 people who are owed pension benefits. Are you or a relative or friend on the list? You can check here.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is the federal agency that backs the payment of basic pension benefits for more than 44 million American workers.
When a company's pension plan is transferred to the agency, sometimes the company can't locate everyone in the plan.
There are 715 missing beneficiaries from North Carolina companies - from Alamac Knit Fabrics to Collins & Aikman to Cone Mills to White of Mebane.
Note that applies only to "defined benefit" plans - the traditional pension which promises to pay a specific monthly amount to workers when they retire. This doesn't include 401-K or profit-sharing plans.
Political watchdog Joe Sinsheimer has been sounding the alarm regarding investment advisers who give campaign contributions to the elected officials who award contracts to manage public pensions, so he was quick to tell us about new rules to curb the practice.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday voted to place strict limits on those campaign contributions to no more than $350 per election, Bloomberg reports. Investment advisers and others connected to them also would be prohibited from fundraising or steering political action committee money to those officials. Violators would be prohibited from managing those pension funds for two years.
"North Carolina invests incredible power in its state treasurer, making the office sole trustee of a $60 billion pension fund," Sinsheimer said. "The SEC decision will allow those decisions to be made without the corrupting influence of campaign contributions from money managers."
He added that the new rules help "take the sting out of the state Senate's cowardly reversal" on including the state treasurer among the elected offices eligible for public financing. The provision was dropped from an omnibus ethics bill moving through the state Senate over the past two weeks.
Former state Treasurer Richard Moore took heat for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from employees of firms doing business with the state's pension funds.
Much has been written about how people are struggling to find ways to express their anger at oil giant BP.
Among the things North Carolinians are apparently not doing is demanding that the state's pension fund divest from BP.
As of June 9, the N.C. Retirement Systems had total exposure to BP Energy Company of $120,577,825.45, according to the state treasurer's office.
That amounts to about .2 percent of the $68.7 billion the fund has under management.
The office reports that it has not received requests to divest, and spokesperson Heather Franco noted that "divesting can potentially have a negative impact on the investment portfolio in the long term."
Indeed. BP shares have lost nearly half their value since late April.
Gov. Bev Perdue's office made public this week draft legislation of personnel law reforms that would make state employees' salary and position histories public and allow the State Treasurer to report the agency for which retirees had previously worked.
The draft legislation also requires the release of personnel records for employees or appointees convicted of felonies. Those records would be limited to information related to the criminal conduct.
Her legislation would also require public boards and commissions to maintain and make public basic personnel information on appointees, such as name, year of birth, and dates of appointment or reappointment.
Perdue limited her legislation to state employees. Her spokeswoman, Chrissy Pearson, suggested in an e-mail message that we talk to the N.C. League of Municipalities or the N.C. Association of County Commissioners "about any push to include local employees."
Neither the league or the association have expressed an interest to change the personnel law for local employees. The league's executive director, Ellis Hankins, has said he likes the law the way it is.
But some of the former employees' whose pay or behavior have created an uproar worked for local governments, and therefore would not come under Perdue's legislation. Among those former employees are two of the biggest recipients of public pensions, Charles Franklin and Billy Williams, and Jessica Wishnask, a former teacher whose suspensions for improper conduct with a student weren't disclosed until she was caught having sex with him and sent to prison.
Pearson said Perdue would be open to legislation that provided more transparency in personnel matters involving local employees.
Perdue's legislation is the second to emerge after we reported earlier this year that North Carolina has one of the nation's most secretive personnel laws. The public is limited to current basic information about state and local employees, such as their current salaries and positions.
The law makes it difficult to track big pay increases or questionable job moves, or to find out about improper hires or the details regarding disciplined or fired employees.
In recent weeks, we have written about how the law is also making it hard to determine how public retirees' pensions have been calculated. Perdue's legislation is intended to make that process transparent. Her staff has been working with state Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat.
The state Senate appears to be taking the lead on passing legislation that would make personnel matters more transparent. Senate Majority Leader Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat, said Monday that his judiciary committee plans to roll out an ethics package next week that would make salary histories public.
