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Kansas

Kansas has three main public pension systems: the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS), the Kansas Police and Firemen’s Retirement System, and the Kansas Retirement System for Judges. KPERS oversees the investment of these systems.

The KPERS board represents state and local public employees; the board consists of 9 members: 1 Ex Officio (State Treasurer); 4 appointed by the Governor; 2 appointed by legislative leaders; 2 elected by retirement system members.

The “By Asset Manager” and “Asset Manager Voting” tables show the proxy voting records of the state’s asset managers who manage the pensions’ stock market portfolio through index, exchange-traded, or mutual funds. Since these are externally managed funds, the asset managers typically retain and exercise proxy voting privileges. This data is used to calculate the state’s pro-ESG and anti-ESG scores to see how the state leverages its externally managed funds in proxy voting.

The “State Voting” table shows KPERS’ proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios. This data was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request since Kansas does not publicly disclose this information to its pensioners. The 1792 Exchange encourages Kansas to publish its proxy voting records instead of keeping its pensioners in the dark about how the state votes on ESG issues with their money.

Both tables are important to show a comprehensive picture of the state’s proxy voting record.

By Asset Manager

Baillie Gifford Funds