Mississippi State Treasurer David McRae paid a visit to Tate County, Tuesday, Jan. 24.
McRae was the special guest speaker at the Tate County Republican Club’s monthly meeting held at the Community Center on Southern Street in Senatobia.
The meeting drew a large crowd of club members, local election candidates and curious residents ready to hear an update from McRae.
As Treasurer, McRae’s primary responsibility is to manage the cash flow which keeps state agencies operating on a daily basis, but additionally, he must maintain a seat on 17 different boards and commissions.
One such board is PERS, Mississippi’s public service retirement plan. McRae recently took a political risk by going against the opinion of the majority of the PERS board and opposed a five percent increase of employer contributions.
McRae addressed this at the TCRC meeting.
“Currently PERS is 50 to 60 percent underfunded,” said McRae. “The increase of employer contributions is only going to hurt rural hospitals and local government’s possibly forcing them to increase taxes.
McRae said a different approach was needed.
“I’d want to use a tier system, but it wouldn’t affect anyone who was already on the plan. Their money is guaranteed, but the new employees would be on a new tier.”
McRae said possible solutions include increasing salaries or vestiture from four to eight years.
“You won’t invest yourself out of the PERS problem,” said McRae.
With a background in the private investing sector, McRae oversees a yearly state budget of nearly 26 billion.
Since he took office in 2020, McRae said the state’s credit rating was improved from a -AA to a +AA, and positive investments have pulled in an additional $130 million.
McRae said one of his favorite aspects of the job include giving back money to the people of the state through the unclaimed money portal.
“It’s your money,” he said. “I just want to help you get it back.”
McRae said the department has already given $700 million back to Mississippians.
McRae’s consistent advice to the state agencies and to individual’s was to avoid interest costs.
“I strongly recommend to pay with cash,” said McRae.
