House committee approves amended bill on Legacy Fund disclosure

Yahoo

07-02-2025

Feb. 6—BISMARCK — The House Finance and Taxation Committee approved an amendment to a bill on Wednesday, Feb. 5, relating to a website that would disclose all North Dakota Legacy Fund investments.
Introduced by Reps. Mitch Ostlie and Bernie Satrom, both R-Jamestown, House Bill 1319 would require the State Investment Board to maintain a website accessible by the public containing information regarding all Legacy Fund investments.
Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, is carrying the legislation in the Senate.
The amendment removes the requirement of the website to list all companies, funds, derivatives and other financial mechanisms in which the Legacy Fund is invested along with the country of incorporation for each investment. The website will no longer be required to list the county of the principle manager of the fund, derivative or other financial mechanism. The amendment also removes the requirement of the website to list the amount of Legacy Fund money invested in a company, fund, derivative or other financial mechanism.
The amended bill now says the website must list all companies, funds and other financial mechanisms in which the Legacy Fund is invested in accordance with state and federal laws.
The bill also says the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office may spend funds necessary for the development and maintenance of the website within the limits of legislative appropriations.
The fiscal impact of building the new website and hiring an additional full-time employee would be about $461,000 for the 2025-27 biennium. For the 2027-29 biennium, the fiscal impact would be over $246,700.
In 2010, North Dakota voters approved a measure that created the Legacy Fund, which is a perpetual source of state revenue from the finite national resources of oil and natural gas, according to the Office of State Treasurer's website. Thirty percent of the taxes on petroleum produced and extracted in North Dakota are transferred to the Legacy Fund monthly, according to the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office's website.
The Legacy Fund has almost $11.5 billion as of Oct. 31.
The State Investment Board has statutory responsibility for the administration of the investment programs of several funds including the Legacy Fund, according to the Retirement and Investment Office's website.
Satrom spoke in support of the bill on Tuesday, saying that there is $3.1 billion invested from the Legacy Fund where the underlying investments are hidden from public view.
"The problem is we have $3.1 billion we really don't know about," he said. "Somebody signed contracts that said we can't know. ... If it's the people's money, we have a higher responsibility. We have responsibilities to them."
He said the Legacy Fund could be invested in derivatives.
"You really don't own it. It's kind of like a bet," he said. "Warren Buffet ... called it weapons of mass financial destruction."
He also said the Legacy Fund is being invested in foreign countries, including China. He said the Legacy Fund was also invested in Russian government bonds before it invaded Ukraine. He said those investments were divested after Ukraine was invaded.
Satrom previously told The Jamestown Sun that the Legacy Fund is or has been invested in over 60 foreign countries, including Argentina, China, Columbia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Mexico, Togo and Turkey.
He said the general public would be "appalled" if they knew the Legacy Fund was or is invested in Russia or China.
"I don't care how much money you make. If it's morally wrong, then I think it's morally wrong," he said. "I don't think you can justify (Chinese investments) with any amount of money."
Satrom said an attorney general's opinion has not been issued for an open records request regarding Legacy Fund investments.
Tory Jackson, a Bismarck attorney, wrote in a column for the North Dakota Monitor that he requested a list of all foreign and domestic holdings and the investments made by each private money manager hired by the State Investment Board. He also requested information about the investments made by 50 South Capital, a Chicago-based firm, that is responsible for the portion of the Legacy Fund that is supposed to be invested in North Dakota.
Jackson wrote in his column that the list of Legacy Fund investments as of Nov. 30, 2023, contains "a few curious items, including over $160 million invested in the 'emerging markets region,' over $520 million in the 'global region,' and nearly $46 million in the 'international region.' " The list of those Legacy Fund investments shows no countries that the money managers have invested in and only categorizes the investments being in the "global region," "international region" and "emerging markets region."
Jackson requested an opinion from North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley on Feb. 9, 2024, on whether the North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office violated the open records law. The opinion has not been issued.
In a letter to former Lt. Gov. Tammy Miller, who formerly chaired the State Investment Board, Conley asks why Jackson was denied information about foreign investments in categories such as "global region," "international region" and "emerging markets region" but not for other investments in countries that range from Argentina to Thailand.
In a response to Conley's letter, Miller wrote that Jackson was not denied information about foreign investments in categories such as "global region," "international region" and "emerging markets region." She wrote that certain investments
such as commingled funds that have exposure in more than one country of risk are listed by regional categories because "to do otherwise would require RIO to alter the record from its custodian and thus be less transparent."
"Further there is significant additional information regarding country of risk exposure of such funds available in reports that RIO publishes on its website," Miller wrote.
The Retirement and Investment Office and the State Investment Board support the establishment of a website dedicated to the Legacy Fund, said Jodi Smith, interim executive director of the Retirement and Investment Office, in her testimony opposing HB 1319.
"My concern is that as that fund grows, the light that's shining on it is also going to grow," she said. "The more money you have, the more attention you are going to get. If we continue to grow at $2 billion a biennium, as that fund continues to grow, there is going to be more and more questions. There's going to be a higher light on that. Just creating that transparency, so it's easier to digest and more easier to synthesize, I think is in the best interests of everyone."
She said the website needs to be simple for the public to find the Legacy Fund investments. She said individuals shouldn't have to open a PDF that is 100 pages long.
"Then you have to understand how to read it," she said.
The original bill "risks undermining the very investment strategies that have allowed the fund to grow and generate substantial earnings for North Dakota," according to written testimony by the Retirement and Investment Office opposing the bill.
"The proposed public disclosure requirements would create contractual conflicts, limit investment opportunities, and expose the fund's strategies to undue market risks," the written testimony says.
Smith said the amendment will allow the website to list the companies, funds and other financial mechanisms of how the Legacy Fund is invested in accordance with state and federal laws.
"If the law requires that we disclose certain information, then we want to be prepared to disclose that," she said. "If the law says no you cannot or should not disclose that information then we won't."
She said what can be disclosed is where the Legacy Fund is invested, the country of origin and how much each fund manager has.
"It's that in between that is less than clear at this point in time," Smith said. "The agency has interpreted the statute that we can't disclose that information. There is an attorney general's opinion pending whether or not we need to disclose that."
She said disclosing the information of the $3.1 billion that Satrom says are underlying investments hidden from public view would lose some investors.
"They would probably pull out of the investments and there might be some legal challenges because we would then be disclosing the proprietary information," Smith said. "If that's what the Legislature chooses, we just need to be prepared for that outcome, the consequences. We can do that, it's just then we probably would take a step back from some of the earnings that we have there."
Smith said the website would also cut down on the open records requests regarding the Legacy Fund. She said the Retirement and Investment Office is only receiving open records requests for the Legacy Fund.