Vermont Pension Investment Commission asks Appropriations committee for $250,000 to begin staff pay adjustments and seeks exempt status for two positions

Tom Golonka, chair of the Vermont Pension Investment Commission, and Eric Henry, the commission’s chief investment officer, told the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 13 that VPIC manages the assets of Vermont’s state teachers, state employees and municipal employee pension plans in a single trust and is requesting a small budget increase to begin addressing staff pay and classification.

Golonka said the pooled assets are “currently 6 and a half, 7,000,000,000, somewhere in that range,” and that the commission’s FY2026 request includes a $250,000 line item to start implementing recommendations from a compensation study. “For that $250,000 our proposed budget for fiscal 26 looks a lot like fiscal 25,” Eric Henry said, adding that the governor did not approve the $250,000 in his proposed budget.

The request is intended to begin a multi‑year “glide path” to raise staff pay from the commission’s current percentile among peers and to convert two positions from classified to exempt, Golonka said. The commission identified “key person risk” because its investment staff is small — Golonka described the…