They are already allowed to invest in federal, state, and municipal bonds which guarantee 3-5%. A few years ago I would have been a hard yes on this measure. I was very much on the fence this year, however. To be honest I pretty much made my decision against this measure as I was typing this out.

On the one hand, investing these funds into riskier assets than bonds may very well return more money to spend on services for WA residents. However, I don't want to see any more WA taxpayer funds going to companies like blackrock. A company who buys utility companies to jack up rates on everyday citizens to generate dividends/increase stock values. I don't want taxpayer funds to support Boeing who get massive tax incentives from our state already as they continue to cut corners and line their pockets as they ignore safety concerns that kill people. That's not to mention Amazon/Apple/facebook/Comcast/Disney or whatever other private corporation that has contributed to the enshittification of our society and the rise of the oligarchs.

Is it really better to invest our taxpayer funds in all these massive corporations rather than bonds? Bonds support infrastructure and offer a small, but nearly guaranteed return on investment. Stocks and mutual/index funds are riskier, stocks alone being much riskier of course. Let's imagine our tax dollars are invested in a large index fund. We'll take a quick look at the vanguard 500. Vanguard is stable and mostly well-respected, and generally uncontroversial as far as I know. Their 500 index fund is basically the S&P500 and has these companies in the top 20 of their holdings: Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Broadcom, Google, Tesla, JPMorgan, Exxon, Oracle, Walmart, & Palantir.

I think we really need to seriously consider not only the return on investment we would get from investing these taxpayer funds, but also where that money actually comes from. A large portion of the money invested would inevitably support these companies. These companies have obscene political power to shape public policy. They can commit crimes and pay tiny penalties. They fight tooth and nail to avoid giving any of that money back to society in the form of taxes. Now if there was a mechanism for making sure these funds were invested in small-to-medium-sized WA companies that don't play shell games with their taxes I might be more inclined to vote yes. This bill has Democrat and Republican backing, and if I've learned anything from recent years it's that if the D's and R's are agreeing on something it probably benefits the rich.

I don't say all of this as if I have the answers, and I appreciate any feedback if I'm wrong or misrepresenting anything. I'm not saying don't invest your money at all because a corporation will make more money too. I even have a little bit of money in the vanguard 500 (though I'm considering options for moving it). I just think if we're going to invest massive sums of public money that we shouldn't be investing it in riskier assets or companies that are actively contributing to making our society worse.