Senate advances bills to change state investment pay metric and move statutory funds to endowment model

The Senate Committee of the Whole recommended passage of two bills that adjust how Wyoming invests public funds and how investment performance pay is calculated.

Senate File 38 seeks to alter the performance compensation calculation for investment managers who oversee large state‑sponsored funds, replacing a short‑term arithmetic measure with a multi‑year rolling metric (described in debate as a geometric/three‑year rolling mean) intended to smooth out outlier years and tie bonuses to sustained performance. Supporters said the change reduces volatility in pay that can result from single‑year market swings. “When we lose, they lose. When we win, they win,” a sponsor said; under current practice, managers only receive performance pay when they beat the benchmark.

Senate File 70 aims to modernize investments for certain statutory (non‑permanent) state trust funds by moving them out of the general “pool A” investment vehicle and toward an endowment‑style allocation modeled on the Permanent Mineral Trust Fund. The bill would create separate income and corpus accounts, adopt spending policies for payouts (the sponsor described a 3 percent policy for some funds and a 4 percent policy for others) and protect purchasing power by reinvesting returns above the spending policy into corpus. The proposal would apply to, among others, the Cultural Resource Trust Fund (cited in debate at roughly $28 million) and the Wildlife Natural Resource Trust Fund (cited at roughly $228 million). Sponsors estimated the allocation shift could generate several million dollars more in annual earnings for beneficiaries (one estimate cited roughly $5.4 million per year from reallocating returns over a 10‑year average).

Both measures were reported favorably by the Committee of the Whole and will proceed to further floor consideration.