FL Short-Term Investments Better Off in Private Hands?

Bob Milligan made that assertion this week regarding everything from the state’s hurricane insurance fund to operating cash for the state’s pre-paid college funding program, according to a Tallahassee Democrat news report. Milligan is also lobbying cabinet members to institute a significant salary bump for the person hired as permanent SBA director to manage all of the state’s $175 billion in investments, including the state’s public pension fund.

Milligan told cabinet officials the new SBA chief should be paid $300,000 to $350,000 – a significant increase from the $182,000 paid to former director Coleman Stipanovich who left as a result of a crisis in the state’s Local Government Investment Pool centered around its subprime mortgage related investments.   

Floridais already moving to privatize management of what remains of the $12 billion local government pool, after revelations it contained defaulted securities that caused its near collapse (See Florida OKs Local Govt. Pool Restructuring ).

Private management has already come at a cost. BlackRock, the fund’s new interim managers, charges up to $39 for every $10,000 invested, compared to $1.50 formerly charged by the state.

An independent audit committee is looking at the state’s purchase of mortgage-related securities as it prepares to hire consultants to investigate the SBA.