A new piece of legislation recently introduced in California, Assembly Bill (AB) 946 or the “Resist the Wall Act,” would require the California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) – the nation’s first and second largest pension funds – to liquidate within 12 months any investments in companies involved in the construction of President Trump’s “Wall of Shame”. The bill also requires the two pension funds to report to the Legislature and the Governor by January 1, 2019 with a list of companies from which they have liquidated investments or plan to do so.
Not surprisingly, the legislation was penned by a trio of Cali democrats including Assemblymembers Phil Ting (D-San Francisco), Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), and Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella).
Californians build bridges not walls. AB 946 asks PERS and STRS to #resist the wall and divest from its builders. https://t.co/373fnOfaue http://pic.twitter.com/JHWDnRip8p
— Phil Ting (@PhilTing) March 20, 2017
In a press release posted to his website, Ting said that “Californians build bridges not walls” and declared for all of California that they want no part of Trump’s “Wall of Shame.”
“Californians build bridges not walls. This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of it. Immigrant stories are the history of America and this is a nightmare,” said Ting. “Asian Americans know the pains of being blocked from immigrating to the United States. We endured that indignity under an act of Congress for decades. We must stand together and fight this wall because it symbolizes weakness and hate to the world.”
“The state’s contracting and investment practices should reflect the values of our state,” said Gonzalez Fletcher. “It’s clear the people of California don’t want to invest in the hateful values that the Trump wall represents.”
“It is counterproductive to invest in projects that will not serve the best interest of all Californians. It is the responsibility of the legislature to safeguard our values and create opportunities for economic growth, rather than to bar them,” stated Garcia. “We cannot build up our dreams if our resources are being used to build a wall.”
As ABC News points out, some 600 companies have expressed interest in bidding on Trump’s proposed border wall and many of them are publicly traded.
More than 600 companies from around the country have expressed interest in taking part in wall construction, having responded to a solicitation from the federal government, according to multiple news reports.
Among them are KBR, U.S. Concrete, Fluor and Martin Marietta, all publicly traded.
And while we’re on the topic of taxpayer-funded projects that are “counterproductive,” we suspect this latest legislation will not help Jerry Brown secure the federal funding he so desperately needs to build his useless bullet train.
via http://ift.tt/2o1qp0S Tyler Durden