Florida lawmakers urge Sudan divestment
May 4, 2007 (TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida lawmakers urged Gov. Charlie Crist to sign a bill divesting state retirement funds from firms doing business in Iran’s energy sector or Sudan, and send a strong message that companies shouldn’t support those countries.
Six states have taken steps to divest public pension money from companies doing business in Sudan, along with several local governments and colleges and universities. Florida would become the first state to put companies doing business in Iran off-limits as a protest against that country’s alleged nuclear ambitions, said the bill’s Senate sponsor, Ted Deutch, on Thursday.
“It would send a very strong signal for the governor to make clear how important this is,” said Deutch, D-Boca Raton.
The House this week passed and sent to the governor a measure that could require Florida’s $118 billion pension fund to sell off stocks in companies that do business in those areas. Crist hasn’t said whether he supports the legislation.
Deutch said the aim is to pressure the companies, not actually divest Florida money from them.
“The goal is to make these companies understand that they shouldn’t be investing in these countries,” he said. “That point would be made quite dramatically if the governor signs the bill.”
Iran is suspected by the United States and many other nations of using those facilities to develop nuclear weapons. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year urged Florida to pass the legislation, saying his country would be a target of Iranian nuclear weapons.
Rep. Adam Hasner, a House co-sponsor of the bill, said whether it does pressure companies to pull out of Iran and Sudan, it’s still a matter of principle that Florida shouldn’t be supporting those governments.
“Our state pension funds – the money our teachers, police and firefighters set aside for their retirement – should not be used to invest in companies that are propping up the terrorist regimes that seek our destruction,” said Hasner, R-Delray Beach.
While targeting Iran because of its alleged nuclear weapons development, the measure takes aim at countries supporting the Sudanese government because the United States says Sudan is supporting a genocide in the Darfur region, where nearly a half million people have been killed since 2003.
The bill would require Florida’s pension funds to review their holdings and call on fund managers to do the same to identify companies doing business in the countries. If those companies continue to do so, the fund would have to divest.
It’s not clear exactly how much the state is invested in companies that would be on the list, but the State Board of Administration has said that there are stocks in its portfolio that would likely be affected.
(AP)