The Political Beat Candidate Guide: North Carolina Treasurer

CHARLOTTE — General elections in North Carolina are set for Nov. 5, and many statewide offices have candidates in the running from the Democratic and Republican parties.

In the race to replace Dale Folwell, Republican Brad Briner faces Charlotte Representative Wesley Harris.

Below are the unedited responses from the candidates.

Wesley Harris

What is your occupation? Economic Consultant.

Why are you running? Our citizens deserve a Treasurer who is looking out for their best interests and will invest in their future – particularly state and local employees who depend on our State Pension and Health Plan. As a native of rural North Carolina, every opportunity I have today was because I had a state that invested in me and provided me with an exceptional public education. Those opportunities are falling behind in many parts of our state today because the state government is undercutting investments in our communities and state employees. Our pension plan is one of the worst performing in the country and our State Health Plan has been cutting benefits and healthcare options from many who devote their lives and careers to the people of North Carolina. Additionally, the poor financial decisions on the state level are shifting the burden of government to our county and local governments resulting in 92 of 100 counties being forced to raise property taxes in the last year. I’m running for State Treasurer so we can do right by our state employees and make sure that every part of our state is able to make the investments in their communities that they need.

What is the most important issue and how do you plan to address it? The most important issue affecting this position is improving the benefits of our State Employees – including compensation, and performance of the State Pension and the Health Plan. The pension is one of the worst performing in the county. While the plan is $125 billion dollars, 14% of that is sitting in cash – where other pension plans around the county have that percentage around 2%. That means we could invest an additional $10 billion and still have a higher cash balance than other pensions and get the returns necessary to give a permanent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to our retirees. We need to invest this money practically to make sure we do right by our retirees. In terms of the Health Plan, we need to use our bargaining power to negotiate fair prices for hospitals and pharmaceuticals while also pushing the General Assembly to fully fund the plan – allowing us to invest in preventative care and wellness programs to further lower the risk pool, and thus the total cost, of the plan. Additionally, we have to improve our State Employee compensation to attract younger workers which can further help keep our health plan solvent.

Do you support the state health plan covering weight loss drugs? Yes. We must make these available, but we must do so in a manner that our Health Plan pays a fair price and does not add excessive financial burden to the plan. These drugs have shown to have real impacts in helping folks lose weight, which we know will help future health outcomes. Treating obesity before later health impacts develop will save our plan money and improve the quality of life of our state employees. Investing in preventative care saves money and improves quality of life – we need to find a way to efficiently cover these drugs.

What has been the greatest success of the current treasurer’s office and how do you plan to build off of it? I believe the most successful policy of our current Treasurer has been his fight for healthcare price transparency. Folks need to know how much something is going to cost to make the best choice. We still have a long way to go, but I am committed to pushing further for price transparency while working with the hospitals and pharmaceutical companies – so people know exactly what they are paying and where that money is going, while still making sure we have coverage across the state. Additionally, bringing the office to the people by conducting Local Government Commission meetings across the state is another example of transparency and accessibility to this office that I vow to continue. People need to know how the finances of the state look and I am committed to traveling the state and letting people know what’s happening to their tax dollars.

How will you responsibly invest the funds entrusted in you as part of the state pension fund? My investment philosophy is companies that do good, do well. I intend to invest our pension funds in a manner that not only provides the greatest returns to our State Employees, but also make sure we are investing in companies that do right by North Carolina and reflect our values as a state. Part of this is actually investing the money. Having 14% of our pension plan in cash is preventing us from getting the returns we need to give a sustainable cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) – which not only helps our current retirees, but also sends a signal to potential state employees we will have your back in retirement, which helps recruit new employees and helps further stabilize the pension.

What sets you apart from your opponents? I am a native North Carolinian, who is the son of a lifelong public-school teacher, so I have seen firsthand the importance of having a strong state pension fund and Health Plan – because those things directly impact my family, as they may yours. That’s why I’m honored to be endorsed by every group that depends on the Treasurer’s office. The State Employees Association of North Carolina, the North Carolina Association of Educators, The Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics of North Carolina, and the Police Benevolent Association have all endorsed me for this position. They all trust me to manage their pension and Health Plan. I’m proud to have served in the General Assembly as a Legislator since 2019, and as the only PhD Economist in the Legislature I have been a leading voice on all financial and economic issues facing North Carolina. You would be hard pressed to find an elected official that has a better understanding of our state’s finances, along with where and how we should be improving. I would be honored to have your support and the opportunity to serve you in this role.

Brad Briner

What is your occupation? I am currently retired, after having successfully built investment programs for the last 25 years. In addition to running for this office, I am on the Board of Trustees at UNC-Chapel Hill, on the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Investment Committee of Phillips Exeter Academy, on the board of directors of Boston Omaha Corp (NYSE: BOC), on the Debt Affordability Advisory Committee to the State Treasurer of North Carolina and run my own investment company.

Why are you running? I am running for office as I am blessed with talents that have led to a successful career in finance. These skills make me uniquely qualified to address the central issue that faces our State in the Treasurer’s office: the poor performance of our pension plan that has resulted in $2-3 billion dollars a year of our taxpayer’s money being wasted. That money can be better used to give our retirees a cost-of-living adjustment, to pay our teachers, to build more roads, or to reduce people’s taxes. Fixing this underperformance will not be easy; it requires much more than reducing the excess cash that is held in the portfolio. We need a Treasurer who not only has deep investment experience, but who also has managed large organizations. I have done both things with great success; my opponent has never done either. The job of State Treasurer is no place for on-the-job training.

What is the most important issue and how do you plan to address it? The most important financial issue facing our state is the lackluster performance of our pension plans. In addition to the deep expertise I will bring to the role of Treasurer, I believe it is time to adopt the reforms recommended 10 years ago by the Investment Fiduciary Governance Commission and change how we govern our pension plans. North Carolina is one of only three remaining “sole-fiduciary” states in the country; this means we give one person absolute power to invest our state’s money. 47 states have moved away from this model, as the potential for abuse and fraud is too high. While we have been fortunate in this state to have had amazing public servants in the Treasurer’s role, the other two states (New York and Connecticut) have not been so lucky. Each has lived through long investigations with former officials being put in jail. Moreover, investment performance in sole-fiduciary states is on average substantially lower. The reason for this is that sole-fiduciary leads to changing investment strategies every 4 or 8 years, depending on who is elected. Having a long-term investment strategy is critical in managing a portfolio like our state pensions, and this reform would help facilitate that.

Do you support the state health plan covering weight loss drugs? The State Health Plan needs to reinstate coverage of these drugs as they clearly provide material benefit to our employees. The way we will do that will be to negotiate with the providers of these drugs to both lower cost and to allow the State Health Plan to have discretion over access to them during this time of scarcity. I was encouraged to see Eli Lilly materially reduced the retail price for Zepbound in late August, which should portend well for the SHP’s negotiations, as should the development of many competing other weight loss drugs that should come to market in the coming year or two.

What has been the greatest success of the current treasurer’s office and how do you plan to build off of it? While there have been many successes during Treasurer Folwell’s tenure, I think the most important on has been a culture of transparency in the office. Prior to his administration, the public was not even aware of the magnitude of unfunded liability in the State Health Plan, the challenges of negotiating with our hospitals, and did not generally know that we have over $1 billion of unclaimed property in the office. Through his commitment to transparency, he has built even better trust for our people in how their money is managed. I will build off this in part by continuing and expanding many of the initiatives he put in place – monthly “ask-me-anything” calls, regular letters to our state employees on financial topics beyond just the pension and health plans, and a commitment to open meetings and records. This culture of transparency will also be extended to some other initiatives – working with the Attorney General to better prepare our citizens to protect themselves against financial fraud, working with our State Auditor to help municipalities get audited on a timely basis, and working with the Department of Transportation to be sure we are funding our infrastructure in a sufficient and balanced manner.

How will you responsibly invest the funds entrusted in you as part of the state pension fund? North Carolina’s Retirement System has a required rate of return of 6.5% per year. If we can make this rate of return sustainably, we can honor the promises we have made to our current and former state employees without overburdening our state or local budgets and our taxpayers. The mission of the pension plans should be clear – to achieve this rate of return with as little risk as possible. Ironically, with all the inflation in recent years, it makes this goal easier than it has been in some time. When interest rates are high (as they are now), we can buy high quality fixed income securities such as mortgages and achieve this rate of return. Of course, we will diversify the portfolio across many assets, but the principle remains the same – achieve the necessary goal with as little risk as possible. As mentioned above, constructing portfolios like this has been the focus of my professional career. With over 25 years of doing exactly this, ascending to the top of multiple investment organizations, I am confident in my ability to deliver the investment portfolio our state desperately needs.

What sets you apart from your opponents? Two simple things: I have experience in what the State Treasurer does: managing finances and managing a large organization. My opponent has literally none. I am not a politician, and my opponent has only ever been a politician. He even wrote his PhD dissertation on politics. I speak in specifics and details, and have a clear plan to address the problems in the Treasurer’s office, while my opponent offers empty promises.

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