16 Democratic Lawmakers Press Treasurer Steiner for a Full Audit of Retirement Fund Risks

By James Neff
August 5, 2026

Sixteen Democratic lawmakers want Oregon State Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner to conduct what they say is a long overdue comprehensive audit of the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund.

In an Aug. 3 letter, the lawmakers told Steiner, a fellow Democrat, they are concerned about the fund’s overreliance on private equity to boost returns.

“We believe this imbalance would have been addressed much earlier if Treasury and the Oregon Investment Council had conducted investment program audits.”

Oregon law requires a comprehensive audit of the giant fund every four years, but it’s been 10 years since the last one.

Lawmakers’ concerns about the state’s private equity investments have grown since an OJP investigation in August 2025 found that Treasury staff and its oversight council invested billions of dollars more than their own targets called for in private equity.

The Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the fund, established a target of 20% for private equity, but as of May 2025 the fund had 27% invested in that asset class. That translated to about $7 billion of excess investment in private equity. It was a costly decision because the publicly traded stock fund—which was 10 percentage points under its target—was booming. Put another way, the council and Treasury didn’t follow investment advice from the independent experts they hired to advise them how best to allocate investments—and public employee pensions suffered as a result.

Private equity investments—which now account for 23.3% of the $104 billion fund—have produced results significantly below the OPERF benchmark every year over the past decade except one. OPERF’s private equity holdings to date this year have fallen 0.03%.

“The concern over excessive investment in private equity, in terms of both transparency and the reliability of return on investment, goes back many years,” wrote Sen. Jeff Golden (D-Rogue Valley) and 15 Democratic lawmakers in a letter Monday to Steiner and the investment council, whose volunteer members are appointed by the governor.

The letter noted that lawmakers met with Steiner in December about the “serious imbalance” of investment in private equity, but “given the delay that has occurred…it is imperative” that a comprehensive audit be completed and shared with the public within 12 months, they wrote.

“It seems like an extremely modest request to provide the audit that the law requires,” Golden told OJP. “That doesn’t feel like bomb throwing to me.”

In an Aug. 4 reply to the lawmakers, Steiner said Treasury staff has been auditing the retirement fund’s different asset classes on a rotating basis, and in the past three years conducted five audits, including for public and private equity and fixed income assets. This approach satisfies the law and is superior to an all-encompassing audit every four years, Steiner said in her reply letter.

The chair of the Oregon Investment Council, Alline Akintore, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The state Public Employees Retirement System is responsible for paying pensions to 166,000 current and 249,000 future retirees. To do that, it charges each city, county, school district, and public employer about 27 cents on every payroll dollar and sends the money to OPERF to invest. The fund uses investment gains to pay pensioners.

The 16 lawmakers wanted the audit to evaluate whether specific investments were making the retirement fund as productive as possible, and to discuss the types and amounts of investment manager fees and whether they were in line with best practices by other large state pension funds.

In particular, the legislators wanted the comprehensive audit to address fees for what are known as “zombie funds,” private equity funds older than 10 years that hold unsold or unsellable assets. OPERF has about $1.3 billion in unsold values for pre-2014 private equity funds, the lawmakers said, citing an investment council report. If all of the older funds were dormant, or zombie funds, they would still cost the retirement fund $26 million in annual fees, the lawmakers’ letter noted.

OJP submitted questions about the possible zombie funds to a Treasury spokesperson Tuesday afternoon but didn’t get a response by deadline.