The Ohio House of Representatives passed SB6, a so-called "anti-ESG" bill, on Dec. 10 by a vote of 62-27.
The vote result was split by party affiliation, as all 62 Republicans passed the bill and all 27 Democrats voted against it. The Ohio Senate had passed the bill in May 2023.
The bill will now be sent to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican.
Sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kirk Schuring, the bill prohibits the state's five retirement systems, state college and university endowments and foundations, and the $22 billion Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Columbus, from making investments with the primary purpose of integrating factors related to environmental, social, and corporate governance.
According to the text of the bill, the boards and other fiduciaries of the aforementioned entities “shall make investment decisions with the sole purpose of maximizing the return on its investments” and “shall not make an investment decision with the primary purpose of influencing any social or environmental policy or attempting to influence the governance of any corporation.”
The sponsor of the bill, Schuring, died on Nov. 22.
The state's five retirement systems, all based in Columbus, are the $115.5 billion Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, $97.2 billion Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, $19.4 billion Ohio School Employees Retirement System, $19 billion Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, and $1.1 billion Ohio State Highway Patrol Retirement System.
Michael Pramik, a spokesperson for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, wrote in a blog post about SB-6 that “OPERS has provided interested-party testimony, pointing out that the bill restates the currently adhered-to fiduciary duty standard.”
In a Dec. 2 letter to the Ohio House Financial Institutional Committee, Karen Carraher, executive director of OPERS, wrote: “OPERS is already in full compliance with both the letter and spirit of SB-6” and that OPERS “does not invest, divest or otherwise act in a way that would harm its members.”
Tim Barbour, a spokesperson for School Employees Retirement System of Ohio, stated that the SB-6 bill “reinforces” the pension fund’s approach to investing.
“Our diversified investment portfolio is designed to meet our statutory and fiduciary obligations and the legislation doesn’t change anything we are currently doing,” he said. “Our fiduciary responsibilities to our membership ultimately guide our investment decisions.”
