On Tuesday, Missouri State Treasurer Scott Fitzpatrick announced a complete withdrawal of Missouri State Employees’ Retirement System (MOSERS) funds from any investments managed by BlackRock due to ‘woke political agenda.’ The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) praises this move, as it further ensures Missouri remains a place where everyone can prosper without economic discrimination for their religious, political, or social beliefs.
This action to remove half a billion dollars in assets managed by BlackRock follows a MOSERS meeting in which the Board of Trustees required BlackRock to abstain from voting proxies due to concerns over prioritizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives over shareholder returns. When BlackRock refused to abstain from voting, the MOSERS Board voted to remove assets from BlackRock-managed funds.
“We should not allow asset managers such as BlackRock, who have demonstrated that they will prioritize advancing a woke political agenda above the financial interests of their customers, to continue speaking on behalf of the state of Missouri,” said Treasurer Fitzpatrick.
A recent FGA paper details how ESG investment strategies are being weaponized for political purposes at the expense of shareholders and how states can fight back against inserting the Left’s radical climate agenda into public sector investments.
“The reality is that ESG is a losing investment that serves the political elite on the backs of Americans’ financial futures. It builds political capital at the expense of real capital and in this case, it threatened to erode the retirement earnings of hardworking Missourians,” said Eric Bledsoe, FGA senior fellow. “We commend State Treasurer Fitzpatrick and State Representative Rusty Black for their strong leadership to ensure the state’s retirement system and other investments serve their beneficiaries, not ideologues.”
