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Michigan

Michigan has five main public pension systems: the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), Michigan State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS), Michigan Municipal Employees’ Retirement System (MERS), Michigan State Police Retirement System (MSPRS), and the Judges Retirement System (JRS). The State of Michigan Investment Board (SMIB) oversees the investments of PSERS, SERS, MSPRS, and JRS.

The SMIB board consists of 5 members: 2 Ex Officio (State Treasurer as chairperson, the State Budget Director); 3 members appointed by the Governor who have extensive public pension investment or similar experience.

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.

Michigan does not disclose its proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios and refused to comply with a FOIA request for this information. The 1792 Exchange encourages Michigan 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.

By Asset Manager

Ancora Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

36%

BlackRock Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

7%

Dimensional Investment Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

5%

Fidelity Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

14%

GMO Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

60%

Invesco Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

34%

PIMCO Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

85%

Principal Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

46%

UBS Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

48%

Blackstone Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

84%

Vontobel Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

0%

ARK Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

18%

Wasatch Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

19%

Clarkston Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

32%

Brookfield Funds

Percentage of times Mgr. voted “for” pro-ESG proposals:

48%

Asset Manager Voting

Pro-ESG

18.6%

Anti-ESG

1.1%

Anti-Fossil Fuels

18%

Anti-Pollution/Waste

27%

Animal Rights

16%

DEI

21%

Weapons/Defense

7%

Human Rights

25%

Income Equality

34%

Political Speech/Lobbying Spending

24%

Health Care

10%

Race/Gender targets on Boards

38%

Non-Pecuniary

4%

ESG-Focused Governance

11%

Abortion

11%

Pro-Fossil Fuel

1%

Equality not DEI

1%

Controversial Cause Support

2%

Geopolitical Rivals/China

2%

Generate Reports

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