“Think Tank’s” Poor Research Leads to Poor Conclusions
The Maryland Public Policy Institute (“MPPI”) has published a
report by Jeff Hooke claiming that the Maryland State
Retirement and Pension System (“System”) paid over a
half-billion dollars in management fees in fiscal year 2015,
cancelling out the tax revenue the state collected from the
lottery and casino industries. And so he frames his poorly
researched report with the spurious notion that the fees somehow
negated the
state’s gaming revenue. In fact, the fees helped the system
generate over $800 million in additional net return,
reducing the impact of a poor investment market on
state finances. It also misleads the reader into believing
that the System’s investment costs are paid out of the
State’s General Fund when in fact, they are paid out of the
System Trust Fund.