Republican legislative leaders renewed their call Thursday for a professional board to oversee future investments of state pension funds, particularly given Gov. Ned Lamont’s interest in using those assets to keep the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun playing here.
“There needs to be structure and fiscal responsibility and a level of respect for taxpayer money and for public employees’ money,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, said during a late morning press conference in the Legislative Office Building.
With the Democratic-controlled General Assembly expected to come into special session next month, Republicans pledged Thursday to reintroduce a bill that would create a board of financial experts who would share authority with the state’s treasurer over the investment of the more than $60 billion in pension assets Connecticut holds.
Currently, the treasurer has sole authority to invest those funds, with some limitations. The state does have an Investment Advisory Council that approves a general strategic plan for investments the treasurer must follow. It also stipulates specific shares of the total pension assets that must be placed in various investment categories.
But Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich, ranking GOP senator on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee, said Connecticut is the only state in the nation that gives an elected treasurer this much discretion. Having a team of investment professionals — rather than one person — making these decisions would better ensure that the protection and growth of workers’ retirement savings is prioritized, he added.
“We are not calling for anything different than what any other state in the country and its taxpayers and its state’s employees have,” said Fazio, who introduced an investment reform bill last legislative session only to see it voted down by the Democratic-controlled finance committee.
Fazio, who opened a campaign for governor last month, added that his proposal is not a commentary on Treasurer Erick Russell, a New Haven Democrat. Fazio and other GOP leaders said Russell, who has been treasurer since January 2023, has made progress during his brief tenure in reversing state investment trends that have underperformed for decades.
But Republicans said the prospect of investing significant pension assets in the WNBA franchise — a possibility Lamont raised earlier this month — has many worried.
The priorities behind pension investments should be maximizing returns, which, in turn, protects workers’ retirement savings and Connecticut’s taxpayers, Harding said. But, at first glance, the potential Connecticut Sun investment appears more like an economic development initiative, or even a political maneuver.
Lamont, who is weighing a third term for governor, has expressed a desire to keep the team in Connecticut, either at the Mohegan Sun casino, where it currently plays its home games, or at the recently renamed PeoplesBank Arena in downtown Hartford, formerly known as the XL Center.
The Associated Press reported in early August that a group led by Boston Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca reached a deal to buy the Sun from the Mohegan tribe for $325 million and move the team to Boston for the 2027 season. That sale still requires the approval of the WNBA’s Board of Governors.
Though the governor hasn’t said what amount Connecticut might invest to keep the team here, he did say any move likely would be in conjunction with a private investor, who also would contribute to keep the team here.
“There is a lack of transparency,” House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said Thursday, describing Lamont’s pursuit of the Sun as “a sort of rapid, haphazard approach.”
Lamont has described it as a good investment. But Candelora noted that when the state has injected funds into past economic development ventures, it hasn’t involved pension assets — and legislators were kept in the know.
Lamont spokesman Rob Blanchard said Thursday that “This isn’t about sound fiscal management and it’s not about trying to keep the Sun in Connecticut. It’s about some Republicans who want to get a head start on the campaign season by inserting politics into the governor’s economic efforts.
“If they push the Sun to another state, they’ll blame him for not trying hard enough to keep them, and if we keep them, they’ll find ways to cast shade over the deal,” he said. “This proposal is one of a few being discussed, and if they care about this state and our WNBA basketball team, they can join our efforts rather than booing from the sidelines.”
Russell added that Lamont has presented no investment proposal involving pension assets for retired state workers or municipal teachers to date.
If that happens, though, “any decision to invest state pension funds would be guided by the goal of achieving the best risk-adjusted returns for the retired teachers and dedicated state workers who depend on us for their retirement security,” Russell said. “If we were to move forward, my expectation would be to work in close coordination with the legislature and the governor’s administration.”
