Keep Symbolic ‘Anti-Woke’ Legislation Away From Pension Funds
Kansas lawmakers and the state’s retirement system are conducting a pointless Kabuki dance over an anti-ESG bill.
There’s a new battleground in the culture wars.
Photographer: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
A state whose citizens call themselves Jayhawks — the term for bands of raiders who terrorized and robbed civilians on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border before and during the Civil War — would not be expected to be friendly to the environmental, social and governance, or ESG, movement. Its state senate is considering SB 224: Kansas protection of pensions and businesses against ideological interference act, commonly referred to as an anti-ESG or anti-woke bill. Alan Conroy, Executive Director of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), offered explosive testimony against the bill, putting its cost in terms of lost returns at $1.14 billion today and $3.6 billion over the next 10 years.
To see the real issues involved, it’s necessary to cut through the grandstanding. Obviously, the Kansas legislature has no intention of spending $5 billion for a symbolic bill. The goal of the sponsors is to encourage asset managers and big companies to tone down public statements with ideological slants, thereby gaining credit from conservative voters for fighting back against out-of-control woke-ism.