Politicians in Kentucky, Florida and North Carolina have continued a crusade by Republican leaders for pension funds to break with ESG and BlackRock. While several state treasury funds have dropped BlackRock from investments, pension plans have been less willing to follow.

In Florida, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis terminated BlackRock from the management of $2 billion in the state’s long-duration portfolio and called on the Florida State Board of Administration, Tallahassee, to drop BlackRock from more than $13 billion in pension plan portfolios.

North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell on Dec. 9 called on BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink to resign, citing the “chaos, fussiness, wacktivism” promoted by Mr. Fink and others

Two Kentucky retirement systems have chosen to reiterate their existing investment policies to two state officials who are seeking confirmation the systems do not integrate ESG considerations into their investment management decisions.

The two boards overseen by the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority, Frankfort, have approved letters in response to the requests from state Treasurer Allison Ball and Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who are both Republicans.

The Kentucky Public Pensions Authority oversees the $7.9 billion County Employees’ Retirement System, as well as the Kentucky Retirement Systems, which consists of four other state pension funds with a total of $4.6 billion in assets. CERS and KRS have separate boards of trustees that vote on investment decisions

In an Oct. 31 letter from the state officials to David Eager, KPPA’s executive director, Ms. Ball wrote that she had recently asked Mr. Cameron whether investment practices integrating environmental, social and governance practices are consistent with Kentucky law “governing fiduciary duties owed by investment managers to Kentucky’s public pensions.”

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