Measure on PERS holdings restored

CARSON CITY -- Every Republican and Democratic legislator voted Monday to override Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a bill that requires the Public Employees Retirement System to disclose its investments with companies doing oil business in Iran.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said some of the money Iran receives can end up being used to support insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Although a voter-approved constitutional amendment prevents the Legislature from dictating how PERS invests, Horsford said that "transparency changes behavior."

"This is an attempt to defend the American men and women who are defending our country," Horsford said before members voted 21-0 to override the veto of Assembly Bill 493.

Earlier the Assembly voted 42-0 to override the veto.

In a floor speech, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, questioned how Gibbons could veto the bill after he asked her two years ago to sign a letter calling for PERS to consider stopping its investments with companies doing business in Darfur. She said she signed the letter.

In vetoing the bill, Gibbons said the legislation was unnecessary because the Legislature has no authority to change how PERS invests money.

Josh Hicks, Gibbons' chief of staff, said on Monday that the governor tried to stop investments with companies doing business in the Sudan earlier this year, but an attorney general's opinion ruled the state constitution prevented him from affecting PERS investments.

Gibbons thought the bill's requirement for a study on Iran investments "was a waste of taxpayers' money; all it would do is sit on a shelf."

Buckley said that all the bill does is require PERS to prepare an annual report on its investments with companies doing oil business with Iran. That should not be a burden because PERS executive officer Dana Bilyeu already handed out the information, Buckley said.

During a May 14 legislative hearing, Bilyeu said an attorney general's opinion prevented the PERS board from considering "social issues," and the system's only interest was securing the best financial return for its members.

She said PERS has $168 million in total investments in companies doing oil business in Iran.

Contact Review-Journal reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.