- "We're in the business of making our state wealthier, not less wealthy. We're not going to engage in that in either direction, but I think you don't have to take our word for it. The timeline speaks for itself," said State Treasurer Brad Briner.
In public comments on Monday, North Carolina’s State Treasurer Brad Briner disputed activist groups’ claim that the sale of $6.4 million in Israel Government International bonds was related to their pro-Palestine divestment pressure campaign. Rather, the bonds were sold earlier in October during a larger fixed income portfolio rebalancing exercise that sold bonds with shorter remaining maturity than the portfolio typically holds.
“Break the Bonds NC Coalition” presented in a petition to the treasurer Oct. 29 urging him to divest state assets in Israeli government bonds.
“We received a petition from that divestment coalition at the end of October. We had sold the bonds before we received that. So it would be hard for it to be about the investment when we’d already sold them by the time we were asked to,” Briner said.
The Israeli government bonds in question were held in the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS). Briner pointed out that the state still holds Israeli sovereign bonds in other investment pools, not just the retirement system.
“We have a state law that we must obey about what factors we can, and cannot, consider when we make investment,” he added. “All the academic research would tell you that divestment campaigns of any kind, and you know each side has different flavors of these things, are expensive. They cost taxpayers. We’re in the business of making our state wealthier, not less wealthy. We’re not going to engage in that in either direction, but I think you don’t have to take our word for it. The timeline speaks for itself.”
State holdings can be found on the NC Treasurer’s website at NCRS Public Market Holdings, AGPIP Bond Index Fund, and Cash Management Program (STIF).
The Break the Bonds Coalition held an Oct. 29 rally celebrating the bond sale and petition delivery.
“I know Brad Briner inherited these bonds and doesn’t think the risk is worth the minimal return. I agree with him and urge him to divest. I earned this pension while protecting North Carolinians’ well-being and do not want it to be complicit in a genocide,” Royden Saah, of Raleigh, said in the group’s press release.
Break the Bonds Coalition lists groups including Muslims for Social Justice, Democratic Socialists of the Triangle, Charlotte United for Palestine, Progressive Democrats of Buncombe County, Palestinian & Arab youth in the RTP (PalYouthNC), and the North Carolina Green Party as endorsing or partnering organizations.
“Israel has destroyed homes, hospitals, schools, refugee tents, and places of worship in Gaza and the West Bank… our tax money here at home. … We want to invest our tax money in stable, financially robust, and ethical funds that support life, not death.” — Samira, PalYouthNC, said in their press release.
TSERS
The Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System (TSERS) is a defined benefit pension plan administered by the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer. According to the TSERS Handbook the funds are “protected by the Constitution of North Carolina from being used for any purpose other than retirement system benefits and expenses.” The plans’ retirement benefits are calculated based on formula rather than directly on investment returns.
A similar discrepancy in activists’ “divestment” claims recently occurred in Minnesota when the State Investment Board disputed an activist group press release implied that the state divested most of its Israeli bonds in support of the political divestment movement. Minnesota’s SBI told the Minnesota Public Radio that the state had “not changed its investment policy regarding permitted investments.”