No more Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream for the state government according to North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell.
Folwell announced on Thursday, Dec. 21 that the list of companies subject to divestment and contract restrictions has been updated and Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. and its parent company Unilever PLC had been added to the list.
North Carolina state statute prohibits, “the North Carolina Retirement Systems or the Department of the State Treasurer from investing in any company engaged in a boycott of Israel.”
According to Folwell, because Ben & Jerry’s is boycotting Israel it would be illegal for the state to invest in that company.
Folwell has ordered the divestment of $40 million in Unilever assets and has instructed that local governments and state agencies be notified that they are prohibited from contracting with Ben & Jerrys or the parent company Unilever.
In the press release Folwell stated, “We have policies in place per state law that dictate how we should proceed on any holdings in the retirement system of companies that boycott Israel and their affiliates. We follow the policies and the law. This is particularly important in this case as we have witnessed the atrocities perpetuated against the Israeli people. There is no place for antisemitism in this state or this country.”
When you’re talking about the state retirement systems, you’re not talking small potatoes. The North Carolina Retirement Systems provides retirement benefits and savings for more than 1 million members, including teachers, firefighters, police officers and other state and local government employees. The Department of the State Treasurer manages the pension plans’ investments that currently total $117.9 billion.
Folwell was first elected state treasurer in 2016 and reelected in 2020, but is not running for a third term. Folwell is currently running for governor in the Republican Primary.
I don’t know if he’ll win the right to compete against any of the liberals, but he’d be my choice. He’s a hawk on wasteful government spending.
Who need Jen an Berries? Woke squared. Unilever make lots of consumer products, which you can avoid if you wish; add their main competitor P&G.
It’s hard to ignore all the ESG company products, as there are so many of them. I take it into consideration when I look at the ads, or packaging.
“The Department of the State Treasurer manages the pension plans’ investments that currently total $117.9 billion.“
Are those plans fully funded?
I doubt it.
Good!
Good riddance.
Another huge question is how the divestment of this money will affect us retirees and the tax implications. A similar situation happened in CA for people whose retirement funds were with Wells Fargo investments and some retirees were slapped with a one-year tax of $20,000 and over. This is no small issue. I question all of this because the funds are considered “sold” by the retiree who owns them, not just swapped for another. Also, it devalues the current holdings so the value of the fund goes down until any exchange is made. This could be really harmful to retirees’ financial future, especially considering this may not be the only fund they find that is in the same situation, and for some of us, that’s about all we got when we retired from service.
So much for free speech. Remeber the supreme court determine money was free speech…but we know Republicans hate free speech regardless of what they say.
Finally! A politician that’s not afraid to stand up proudly for what’s right!! Everyone conveniently forgets that Hamas attacked Israel, not the other way around!! It is our duty to stand up for Israel and the horrible injustices perpetrated against them! Ben and Jerry’s is trash ice cream anyway so no loss there! It’s high time we have someone to stand up against the tyranny of the left and their ridiculous demands and thoughts.
God knows Roy Pooper doesn’t have the man goods to stand up for what’s right and good. He would rather pocket those payoffs than grow a pair! I’ll be so glad when that traitor ks out of office!
It’s really funny how much people especially in the government in places like the NC Government Republicans, like to swing a two sided sword to try to win the support of the ignorant uneducated supporters in the world.
Like it’s not okay to be anti Israeli government because of the war, and the reason being that the people who in the Gaza strip are trapped behind walls , basically like a modern day concentration camp built by Israel and have no way to escape.
Israel continues to control every basic daily necessity, for daily existence for the people of the Gaza strip who are just innocent bystanders in the war between the Hamas and the Israeli government. And it has been like this for their entire lives just like Hitler was doing to the Jews but people of the war world except it as being okay for Israel to be doing it today’s Pakistan.
People who are against this war that Israel is in honestly are not necessarily anti Jew as much as they are anti-israeli government.
But what really pisses me off is the fact it’s also okay for the government and all the ignorant people of this state that are Anti LGBT and that is ok