80th Legislative Session _ 2005

Committee: Joint Appropriations
Thursday, January 27, 2005

                                            P - Present
                                            E - Excused
                                            A - Absent

Roll Call
P    Apa, Chair
P    Bartling
P    Dennert
P    Earley, Vice-Chair
P    Gant
P    Glenski
P    Greenfield
P    Hanson (Gary)
P    Haverly
P    Hunhoff
P    Klaudt, Vice-Chair
P    Napoli
P    Peters
P    Rausch
E    Smidt
P    Sutton (Duane)
P    Tidemann
P    Putnam, Chair

OTHERS PRESENT: See Original Minutes

The meeting was called to order by Chairman J.E. "Jim" Putnam

STATE INVESTMENT COUNCIL

Roy Burr, chairman of the council, presented other members of the board including Curt Johnson, Angeline Lavin, Larry Ness, Rob Wylie, Bryce Healy-S&PL Commissioner, and Vern Larson, State Treasurer.

Document 1, response to the Appropriations Committee questions, was distributed to the committee members.

The new state investment officer for South Dakota is Matt Clark

Mr. Burr referred to exhibit 2 to indicate the growth from 1973 of $133 million to just over $7.1 billion in FY04, having only a single year without increase. House Bill 1331 changed the Investment Council's budget process. Now the Executive Board's approval is needed before presenting to BFM and the appropriations committees. The budget is financed from the earnings under management; there is no general fund appropriation. The Joint Appropriations Committee's Letter of intent called for a long-term plan to encourage internal and external management.

(Exibit 4 in Document 1)
Mr. Burr noted that the long term plan summary of the Investment Council is head and shoulders above other people with respect to cost control. A billion dollar pension fund has an average management cost of $4/$1000. The SD Investment Council is at the bottom of the spectrum which is where it intends to stay.

(Exhibit 6 in Document 1)
There is a 6.5% return on wealth accumulation. The difference is $4 billion in extra savings due to maintaining low costs.

(Exhibit 7a in Document 1)
An overall budget increase of 6.29%. The unit cost for internally managed assets is budgeted at $.86/$1000 of assets for FY06. The assistant portfolio managers and research position salaries are increasing between 9% and 16% as they assume increased responsibilities due to experience related steep learning curves. They are young individuals that will have increased responsibility.

Incentive Compensation: Investment performance incentives reward out-performance of capital market benchmarks and the private sector corporate universe which range from 1% to a maximum of 100% of base salary. Incentives are paid only if earned by superior performance. The unearned incentive funds are not spent. They remain part of the cash reward out-performance of capital market benchmark. The incentives are paid only if they are earned. The recommended budget assumes the full pay out amount of bonus, which doubles the cost. Whatever is not paid out is kept for next years carryover.

Operating expenses is increasing by 3.14%. Within the operating budge, contractual - investment services increasing by 4.96%. Several investment research services were cancelled and others are bing increased or are new for a net increase of $38,369. Administrative services are increasing by 3%. No increase for travel or office supplies.

The long-term business plan is the key ingredient to long-term superior investment performance.


(Exhibit 7b in Document 1)
The request for FY06 is $5.9 billion; an increase of $353,000. The new investment officers compensation was established through research of Deloit. A new compensation for the entire office will start in December and end in April.

Matt Clark talked about exhibit 9 in Document 1. Dollar and percentage impact of investment performances are good. Clear goal is to out-goal any long-term goals. Underperformed the pension plan by 32 basis points. This was a good year because of good capital outlook. The dollars earned over the last several years has been $277 million in state funds. Over the last five year the numbers have been better. The importance of outperforming could result in million to even billions to the retirement system.

Representative Putnam asked what the turnover rate was for the young analysts. Mr. Clark said that it has been low. There has not been any of the individuals lost that were hired in the last couple of years. Their income is around the $40,000 mark. Representative Putnam followed up with asking what it was that is presented to the Executive Board that might be different than what is here today. Mr. Clark responded that it is very similar to what is presented to the Joint Committee with the exception that the Executive Board is given a more detailed copy of the budget plan. Moving to a long-term business plan is the key difference in separating South Dakota from the rest.

STATE TREASURER

Vern Larson, State Treasurer, presented his office's budget.

(Document 2, State Treasurer question response, was distributed to all committee members)

This past year, the state treasurer location has moved into a recently re-modeled office. Now all 8 of the state treasurer's employees are in one location. For the first time in the history of the division, it has exceeded $2 million in payouts. The record payout was $2,321,721 for FY04.

The two divisions within the office of the state treasurer are 1) the Division of Treasury Management and 2) the Unclaimed Property division; 16% of the funding source comes from general funds. 84% come from other funds which include unclaimed property monies that is received from holders throughout that United States.

With the selected performance indicators given, there is a change of request from the FY05 budget: $69 for longevity pay and $2,300 for increase in travel.

The Division of Unclaimed Property: The recommendation includes an expansion within the unclaimed property division of 2 FTE and the commensurate expenses. (Salary and benefits, travel, and capital outlay of $83,655). The requests were not finalized. The state treasurer proposes to hire a local CPA firm rather than having full-time employees. It was advised that we should request a revised budget with less FTE. There is a difference of $72,033.01 in revised budget request.

Representative Dennert wanted to know why the amounts were getting bigger and if finding individuals is getting easier. Mr. Larson explained, that it is getting easier to find individuals. It is the goal to concentrate on the larger unclaimed properties, as the staff is only two individuals. The properties that have come in 20-30 years ago is going to be harder to track down as not as much information is available.

Senator Earley asked if the property that comes in reverts back to the state. Mr. Larson replied that it never does. It requires an in-depth record keeping system. Seventy-eight thousand people in South Dakota do not know that the state owes them money. Senator Earley followed up with asking for an expansion on the people that know their name is in the book but are unwilling to do anything about it, according to Mr. Larson. If the amount is small, people do not think that is worth their time and effort. It is getting easier to track down those people through a new software program; it lists every address that an individual has lived in. Senator Earley stated that if these unclaimed properties don't become claimed, and does not revert back to the state, then it just sits there. Mr. Larson replied that some states have a system in which after a certain amount of time has elapsed, the property goes to certain programs such as scholarships. Senator Earley asked for an explanation of the service contracts. Mr. Larson said that the costs for listing people in the newspaper is required by law.

Representative Haverly asked if it is possible to match up names on the unclaimed property list with a deceased person and if so, is it possible to get the property to the next of kin. Mr. Larson replied that there is no software available to correlate this information. Representative Hunhoff asked how long the archive for this information is? Mr. Larson said that it goes back to1973 but the information is not as detailed as it is today. The dollar amount up to $50 can be sent in aggregate form; many times all that is given is a name with no address given.

Representative Hunhoff asked if personal property is given instead of dollars, is money given for property. Mr. Larson said that the item could be listed on Ebay or some other auction and put the sales amount in the fund.

The Joint Committee recessed at 9:32 A.M.
The Joint Committee reconvened at 10:00 A.M.

SOUTH DAKOTA RETIREMENT SYSTEM

Elmer Brinkman, chair of the South Dakota Retirement System Board of Trustees and Robert Wylie, Administrator of the South Dakota Retirement System (SDRS) presented the budget.

Document 3, answering the Appropriations Committee, was distributed to all committee members.

The SDRS investment return for FY04 was 16.6%.

The mission of SDRS is to plan implement, and administer income replacement programs that give all SDRS members and their families the opportunity to achieve financial security at retirement, death, or disability by providing an outstanding, appropriate, and equitable level of benefits.

SDRS sets aside funds to cushion a downturn, and as a result, has not incurred losses that must be recovered through future favorable experience, higher contributions or benefit reductions. This places SDRS as one of the best funded statewide systems in the county.

SDRS is a total other funds organization - there are no general funds. Administrative costs are covered by the retirement trust fund. FTEs have remained stable.

There is a total of 0.9% increase in the budget request.

1 *      Travel increase is 10% due to expanded customer service programs;
2 *      The Governor requests $14,128 from other funds for computer service support that was previously provided by the Business Education Institute and will now be provided for by the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications.
3 *      A $6,000 increase in rent for approximately 600 sq. ft. for housing new FTEs.

Represenative Klaudt asked what the total square feet rented was? The response was that it was approximately 9,000.

$2,000 is requested for the Special Pay Plan established last year. The new plan allows for accumulated pay and sick payout amounts to be deposited in a special account that affords the member substantial tax savings. The additional $2,000 will be used for an annual audit.

Senator Earley wanted to know the total amount of assets that were in the fund and how many millions of dollars were lost in the down market years of 2001 and 2002. Mr. Wiley said that the fund now has about $5.5 billion and during those two years the fund lost approximately $500 million. Senator Earley reminded the committee that the market does have a down side and to never forget that it was the cushion that saved the system.


Senator Earley asked for Mr. Wiley to explain how the changes made during last year's legislative session have improved the conditions of SDRS. The response was that it saved more than $300 million over the life of the system.

Senator Apa asked about the website availably for members to check their investments and projected payments upon entering different scenarios. Mr. Wiley said that this will be available by the end of the year. Senator Apa followed up with asking if there will be fewer seminars if members can get the information from the web-based system. Mr. Wiley responded that the two will most likely work together.

MOTION:     ADJOURN

Moved by:    Hunhoff
Second by:    Earley
Action:    Prevailed by voice vote.

Wendy Weinert

____________________________

Committee Secretary
J.E. "Jim" Putnam, Chair


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