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State may lift ban on N. Ireland investmentsBy ALISA ULFERTS
© St. Petersburg Times, TALLAHASSEE -- The state may drop restrictions that have prevented it from investing in Northern Ireland companies. The state Board of Administration, charged with overseeing Florida's $100-billion employee pension fund, will consider Tuesday whether to ask the Legislature to cut red tape the state faces every time it invests in a company in the region. Florida has had the restrictions since 1988, when car bombings and other violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland routinely made headlines. The state is required to document the companies' adoption of programs designed to recruit religious minorities and protect them from discrimination. The law lists nine examples of affirmative action that the state "shall determine the existence of" in the companies with which it wants to invest. Despite recent violence -- including Wednesday, when Protestant paramilitaries threw a bomb at police officers escorting Catholic girls to an elementary school in Belfast -- state investment staffers say the time has come to end the cumbersome restrictions. "I think much of the concern has been taken care of," said Tom Herndon, executive director of the board of administration. Herndon had proposed lifting the restrictions last year, but withdrew the suggestion after violence erupted. "That's the problem. Things were quiet, then they flared up," Herndon said. If other board of administration members -- Gov. Jeb Bush, Treasurer Tom Gallagher and Comptroller Robert Milligan -- tell Herndon to start drafting legislation, it will be the second time this year the board has agreed to lift barriers to investment. In June, the board ended a 4-year ban on investment in tobacco stocks. Florida had pulled out of tobacco stocks in 1997, during negotiations to settle the state's lawsuit against the tobacco companies. The state sued the tobacco industry to collect millions it spent to provide health care benefits for the elderly and poor with smoking-related illnesses. Health organizations opposed returning to tobacco stocks, saying the state shouldn't be investing in a product that makes people sick. Milligan opposed the 1997 divestiture, saying it was politically popular but financially foolish. But Milligan said Friday he'll take a hard look at the state's Northern Ireland policy before he decides whether he thinks it needs to be retooled. Bush was traveling Friday and could not be reached. Gallagher is leaning toward lifting the reporting requirements, according to spokeswoman Tami Torres. Patrick O'Sullivan, a Florida State University professor and expert on Irish affairs, said the restrictions may be well-intended but likely had little effect on the tensions in Northern Ireland. Most of the violence and discrimination is practiced by extreme fringe groups and individuals, not publicly traded companies, O'Sullivan said. "That's not the kind of enterprise the state would be looking at," O'Sullivan said. Northern Ireland isn't the only area off limits. Herndon said state law puts similar restrictions on companies headquartered in Cuba. But he's not recommending lifting those restrictions. "There will come a time when we'll want to lift those restrictions," Herndon said. "Now is not that time."
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From the Times state desk Lucy Morgan
From the state wire
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