AG on Auction Rates

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann said at a housing conference last week that he is considering filing lawsuits on behalf of state funds with investments in the troubled auction-rate market, according to reports.

Dann suggested his office was in the preliminary stages of investigating how much — if any — auction-rate debt is held by the state’s investment funds.

“We’re actually looking into that today,” Dann was reported as saying at a recent Reuters Housing Summit in New York. “There are potential disclosure issues. They’ve been kind of treated as a cash equivalent.”

Spokesman Ted Hart confirmed Dann’s statements and declined to provide additional details.

It is unclear how much auction-rate debt is held by the state’s funds.

The Ohio police and fire pension fund’s $12.8 billion portfolio has no auction-rate securities, said spokesman David Graham.

Ohio has no auction-rate securities that are backed by state revenues, though a few state bond-issuing agencies — including the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority and the Ohio Water Development Authority — have some auction-rate debt.

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