HometownSource Blogs

Gov. Tim Pawlenty was both playful and serious at the State Board of Investment meeting this morning (Dec. 10) at the Capitol.

At the outset of the meeting, while approving the board meeting minutes, Pawlenty turned to Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and said “I wonder if we should do a recount?”  when noting board attendance.

“We’ll have to get an (legal) opinion,” Ritchie, up to his ears in the U.S. Senate recount, deadpanned back.

Later during an investment discussion when the phrase “long term” kept being used, Pawlenty quipped that Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said that long term we’ll all be dead.

But Pawlenty struck a serious note in discussing the board’s portfolio, opining that a lot of it was in riskier investments and wondered whether the Legislature’s direction to the board that it seek an 8.5 percent return on investments might be forcing the board to invest in riskier investments.

“I’m not sure that’s realistic,” said Pawlenty of the 8.5 percent.
But Board Executive Director Howard Bicker said the board’s investment strategy was not a fancy, dancy one.

Although the strategy may seem edgy, he opined, it isn’t.
If the board members begin to notice investments being made in more exotic areas, then they might infer the board is having trouble meeting the 8.5 percent return mark, he explained.

But those investments are not being made, he explained.