Our Association’s close relationship with Deb Goldberg dates to 1998, during her tenure as a member of Brookline’s Select Board. With the newly passed Municipal COLA Reform law on the verge of being rejected by the town, Goldberg personally intervened and helped successfully usher the law across the finish line.
Dubbed by former President and Mass Retirees founder Ralph White as the “COLA Queen”, Goldberg has steadfastly maintained her support for the critical retiree benefit throughout her tenure as State Treasurer and Receiver General. This year, Goldberg leant her support to our Association’s quest to pass COLA Reform into law. For these reasons and more, we are honored to endorse Deb Goldberg for reelection.
Serving as State Treasurer since 2015, Goldberg has brought stability and continuity to an important office that, too often, had served as a stepping stone for those seeking higher office. In doing so, she has grown the scope of the treasurer’s role and brought a new level of professionalism to the state offices that she oversees.
While the Abandoned Property Division and Lottery receive much public attention, it is the State and Teachers’ Retirement Boards along with the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board which are of most importance to public retirees.
Goldberg chairs both the State Retirement and PRIM Boards and holds a seat on the Teachers’ Retirement Board. As an elected member of the State Retirement Board, Association President Frank Valeri has worked closely with Goldberg for nearly a decade. Together they continue to work to decrease wait times for new retirees, while streamlining operations to increase efficiency.
Association Treasurer Joe Connarton is a newly elected member of the PRIM Board.
As chair of PRIM, Goldberg has overseen a fund that has more than doubled in size over the past 11 years – from a balance of $60.7 billion as of 12/31/2014 to $123.6 billion as of 12/31/2025. From 2016-2025 the fund produced an outstanding return of 9.37%. The fund is now more than 75% funded and well on track to be fully funded by the 2039 deadline.
While the fund grew and produced historic returns, Goldberg supported efforts by PRIM’s expert staff to better diversify the fund and reduce downside risk.
Goldberg’s leadership helped set the stage for the passage of the new COLA Reform law, which will now draw on excess investment gains as an earmark to fund future COLA benefit improvements and the Enhanced COLA for State and Teacher Retirees.
As is the case with our other endorsed candidates, we believe Deb Goldberg has earned our endorsement, as well as the vote of public retirees. We respectfully ask our members to please grant her every consideration when you vote in the November 3rd Election.