Comments on: Georgia Senate Bill 80

By: Stephen Fleming

Stephen Fleming — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 05:29:00 +0000

Nope. Never made it out of Rules committee.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 03:02:00 +0000

What happened to the bill? Did it pass the House last Friday?

By: Whit Blakeley

Whit Blakeley — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:16:00 +0000

Stephen:

Appreciate your comments on Senate Bill 80. I know at Ritz Group meetings this is a constant source of discussion and concern. Many well informed and experienced entrepreneurs have continually faced this objection by investors outside of Georgia.

I have a son in commercial real estate who works regularly with the NY State Teachers Pension Fund and CALPERS, and other state pension funds who regularly is asked why Georgia is the only state to not allow such investment in its' own State.

Please continue to encourage your readers and others to push for passage this year. Thanks, Stephen.

Whit Blakeley
The Ritz Group

By: RobO

RobO — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Aha! That makes sense. I can see where some VC’s requests for backing would be based on confidential information that they wouldn’t want to get out.

It seemed odd that, on one hand, the retirement systems were being allowed to make risky but potentially high yielding investments (can you say junk bonds?) while, at the same time, being allowed to “hide” these super speculative investments from the stakeholders. But I understand now.
I’ll contact my representative if it isn’t too late.

By: Stephen Fleming

Stephen Fleming — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:52:00 +0000

RobO — probably deserves a post of its own but, basically, if you make everything public record, you simply won’t be allowed to invest in the top-quartile venture funds. Those funds do NOT want their deal valuations and rates of return publicized, and they don’t need our money. If I remember correctly, KPCB and Sequoia have even turned down CalPERS because of public-disclosure requirements.

I imagine the fund manager would choose to publicize details whenever possible, but he or she needs flexibility to keep it private for certain funds.

More detail at http://tinyurl.com/yw9b28 .

By: RobO

RobO — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:27:00 +0000

I agree with the intent of this bill and am grateful for you and TAG bringing it to our attention but I have one concern. The bill exempts disclosure of the details of the alternative investments from public scrutiny. The name of he investment, amount of money invested and rate of return must be published, but only after 1 year. All other information such as the original prospectus can be withheld at the discretion of he retirement system. Why can’t the public or at least the members of the retirement system be told everything?

By: annrp

annrp — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:39:00 +0000

Thanks for being inspirational! I got right on the horn to my House Rep — who knows what good it will do, but you have to hope that EVERY call, EVERY email will add up. It has to – some day, we’ll be heard and move this state toward entrepreneurial heaven.

Thanks Steve, and TAG, for educating us…

By: Grayson: Atlanta, GA

Grayson: Atlanta, GA — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:29:00 +0000

BTW, what happened in Rules today?? Need info. Can’t find any in MSM.

Send status of SB80 to spaceygracey at bellsouth dot net and I’ll blog it on Peach Pundit now.

By: Grayson: Atlanta, GA

Grayson: Atlanta, GA — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:43:00 +0000

Thanks for this wealth of info on a very important matter. Considering that only 40% of Georgia’s high schools manage to graduate 50% of their students, it’s not surprising that few are in control of many. Heck, “many” can’t even read in this state.

By: Jeff Fisher

Jeff Fisher — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:24:00 +0000

Steven,

Thank you for the message and thank Tito for the distribution. SB 80 is important to Georgia and all of us in the community. I’ve written in the last week to both my senator and my representative and gotten a positive reply from one of them.