NCRGEA’s mission is to advance, promote, and protect the benefits of those who worked and have retired from local and state public service. We are a nonpartisan organization in our advocacy and lobbying efforts. In line with our mission, NCRGEA contacted the candidates’ campaign offices for Governor and Treasurer, requesting responses to questions specific to government retirees. Though there are other important offices up for election, we see these two offices as having considerable influence on those retired from or currently working in public service. Our questions are directly in line with our mission and seek to provide you with additional insight into candidates’ positions. For additional information, we encourage you to visit their campaign websites, conduct your own research, and vote for the candidates you best believe represent you. To learn more about NCRGEA’s legislative agenda, go to NCRGEA.com/advocacy.
Josh Stein
Candidate for North Carolina Governor
What are your top three priorities for the state if elected governor?
Stein: I love North Carolina, and I believe in the promise of this state that if you work hard, where you come from shouldn’t limit how far you can go. I’m running for Governor to deliver on that promise by investing in our people and their futures. It’s about expanding economic opportunity, strengthening public schools, and keeping people safe. First, too many people are struggling with the rising cost of living. As North Carolina’s next Governor, I’ll work to put more money in the pockets of middle class families and find ways to cut costs whether that be the grocery store and gas pump or hospital and drug costs. Next, our public school students are not getting the support they need from our state. As North Carolina’s next Governor, I’ll support our educators and fight to raise teacher pay to at least the national average. Finally, everyone deserves to be safe in their communities. That means supporting our first responders and law enforcement, including funding new strategies for recruiting and retaining local police officers and promoting common-sense reforms to reduce violence in our communities.
What will you do to secure beneficial cost-of-living adjustments for NC’s government retirees to counter the impact of inflation?
Stein: North Carolina’s public servants must be able to retire with dignity, including in times of economic uncertainty and high inflation. As Governor, I will call on the General Assembly to enact regular, fiscally responsible cost-of-living adjustments for TSERS and LGERS members. I will also develop and propose annual adjustments for retirement system members in the Governor’s Budget. North Carolina has historically had one of the best funded retirement systems in the nation. That is a reputation our elected officials should be proud of and should strive to preserve. We must focus on strengthening our retirement system and honoring our commitment to those who served our state and people for so many years.
Job vacancies are a serious issue in the public sector, with some areas reporting vacancy rates above 30%.
As governor, how would you remedy this issue to ensure we have the workforce needed to ensure North Carolina is safe, educated, and healthy?
Stein: Reducing vacancies in state government is important to delivering services to our people and it helps strengthen our pension system and increase contributions. To reduce vacancies, we have to pay our workers who serve the public better. We are seeing too many vacancies throughout state government in critical jobs, like in prisons and schools, because pay is too low. We need competitive salaries and benefits, family and medical leave, and meaningful opportunities for professional development and career advancement. We can attract and retain talented North Carolinians to serve in government while maintaining reasonable contribution rates to TSERS
and LGERS. And we must.
Mark Robinson
Candidate for North Carolina Governor
NCRGEA contacted Mark Robinson’s campaign office requesting his participation in our candidate profile questions. At the time of this printing the Summer 2024 Living Power issue, we did not receive a response.
Brad Briner
Candidate for NC State Treasurer
What are your top three priorities for the state if elected treasurer?
Briner: The highest overall priority for the next State Treasurer must be to protect and preserve North Carolina’s strong financial position, as shown in the consistent AAA credit rating of the State. This rating is a product of many different decisions by the Treasurer, the Legislature, and the Governor over time—it is essential to allowing North Carolina to continue to be a strong and growing state, and such a great place to live. We have all seen the consequences for states who manage their finances poorly—reduced government services followed by higher taxes followed by people moving out of state, and we must be vigilant to ensure North Carolina benefits from continuing the economic virtuous cycle which began thirteen years ago when Republicans became a majority in the Legislature.
The second priority must be to address the lagging performance of the North Carolina Retirement System.
NCRS has consistently underperformed other peer pension funds by about 2.5% per year, which has cost
our state dearly; this represents approximately $3 billion per year of forgone gains in our pension funds, which is the central issue in why cost of living adjustments have not kept pace with inflation, and is a major issue for the broader state budget as well. Fortunately, there are several other states who have fixed their pension performance problems over the last decade, so there are good templates for what reforms need to be enacted to solve this problem.
The third priority for the next Treasurer is to continue to address the large and growing deficits in the State Health Plan. The Plan is not unique in facing the pressure of higher health care costs—every state, company, and individual who pays for health care has the same issue. In addition to piloting more and different ways to deliver better value to members while limiting cost to taxpayers, the next Treasurer needs to work with the State Legislature to continue to build adequate reserves against the large expected future costs of the plan.
Since 2008, the only increases for local government retirees are a .73% cost-of-living increase (2015–2016) and a one-time 2% bonus (2022). Since the treasurer serves as chair of the Local Government Retirement System Trustees, what would you do to change future outcomes for those retired from local government service?
Briner: There are only two ways to improve the cost-of-living increases for LGERS (and TSERS, for that matter)—first, by improving the investment performance of the assets of the plan, or second, by increasing the contribution rate from local governments. Increasing performance in my view is the most achievable of these, and I have a detailed plan to do just that on my website at www.bradbriner.com.
As treasurer and the sole fiduciary for the state, do you foresee changes in investment policy and strategies to maintain the health of the state’s pension systems and also provide cost-of-living adjustment money for retirees? If any, what would these changes be?
Briner: Yes. North Carolina has for too long adopted an overly conservative stance in investing pension assets, preferring cash and US treasury bonds to other assets that offer much higher long term expected returns. This has cost us dearly as mentioned above, and underpins the decisions around cost-of-living adjustments historically.
As the next Treasurer, I would work with the legislature to overhaul pension governance to implement a modern investment model, in line with Florida, Texas and many other states. We are one of only three remaining
sole fiduciary models in the US, as the industry long ago identified the two key problems with this form of
management. The first key problem is that vesting all the power in a single elected official can lead to material
changes in investment strategy upon election of a new Treasurer—strong long term investment performance
comes from consistency of investment strategy over cycles and this form of governance works against that. Second, we have been very fortunate to have principled and ethical Treasurers in this state. But this model gives so much
power to the Treasurer that it can be abused—and it has been in other states with the sole fiduciary model.
Wesley Harris
Candidate for NC State Treasurer
What are your top three priorities for the state if elected treasurer?
Harris: My top three priorities as Treasurer are: 1. Increase the returns and performance of our pension plan so we can give cost of living adjustments to our retirees. 2. Work with healthcare and pharmaceutical providers to ensure fair prices for State Health Plan Members and create wellness programs to lower the overall risk pool, and thus total cost, of the State Health Plan so we can pass those savings onto the plan members, and 3. Work with the Legislature to increase State Employee pay so we can attract younger workers, making the State Health Plan and State Pension Plan more sustainable for current and future retirees. Since 2008, the only increases for local government retirees are a .73% cost-of-living increase (2015–2016) and a one-time 2% bonus (2022).
Since the treasurer serves as chair of the Local Government Retirement System Trustees, what would you do to change future outcomes for those retired from local government service?
Harris: Simply put, we just need to improve the performance of the pension plan. Our plan has performed
the worst in the country for the past few years and the cause is our abnormally high cash balance. If we lower that cash balance to similar levels to other pension plans, we have an extra $10 Billion to invest which can yield an extra $1 billion a YEAR in returns that can finance a long-term COLA for our retirees.
As treasurer and the sole fiduciary for the state, do you foresee changes in investment policy and strategies to maintain the health of the state’s pension systems and also provide cost-of-living adjustment money for retirees? If any, what would these changes be?
Harris: I don’t foresee any large investment policy changes; simply put, we need to be more efficient in how our fund is invested. Our $120 Billion pension plan has 14% sitting in cash which is causing our low returns. Most other pension plans have a cash balance of 2–3%. So, by reducing our cash balance to more reasonable levels we can greatly improve our pension plan returns without taking on an excessive increase in risk. This can not only make the plan solvent, but give us the resources to give a Cost-of-Living Adjustment.