As the Carolina Hurricanes continue to make their way through the Stanley Cup Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights, state Treasurer Brad Briner made known that North Carolina was presented with the opportunity to buy part of the franchise last year, but passed.

“It’s embarrassing as we sit here today,” he told Council of State members at their meeting on Tuesday. “It would obviously be cool to own it as a state, as a pension system, but we don’t get to consider that as part of our investment philosophy. We just get to look at economics and we concluded that while the Canes is an amazing franchise, as a business that didn’t meet our risk and return objectives. It reminds me of Yogi Berra’s famous quote and that is ‘it’s tough to make predictions particularly about the future,’ so here we are today.”

The Hurricanes are said to be valued at $2.66 billion after owner Tom Dundon reached an agreement to sell 12.5% of the team in March to three minority partners.

In 2018, Dundon bought a majority stake in the Hurricanes for $420 million, before taking full ownership in 2021.

The Canes lost to the Knights in the first game Tuesday night with a score of 5-4. The two teams will meet up again Thursday night at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh.

$16B pension deficit cut in half; pension system reaches record $148B in assets

Briner, did have some good news to share about the state.

The $16 billion pension deficit has been cut in half since he took office 17 months ago, and, at the end of May, the state’s retirement system pension has reached $148.3 billion in assets, an increase of $25 billion since he took office, and a record, according to the treasurer.

“We’re well on the way to delivering on the promise that we set out: that sophisticated investment management for this state can have profound implications for taxpayers and for state employees,” Briner said.

He said in a video message on X that by increasing the pension bottom line, tax dollars that ‘have been used to help plug that hole can now be used for other purposes.’

State Health Plan board meeting next on agenda

Also, as members of the State Health Plan, Briner invited Council of State members to participate in an upcoming State Health Plan Board of Trustees meeting on Friday.

“No different than everywhere else in healthcare, the State Health Plan has a cost problem,” he said. “As we have been outspoken about our need to control cost inflation, particularly about a certain hospital merger, and we need everyone to be focused on keeping costs down. We’ll discuss preferred providers as a strategy to inject competition into a healthcare system that refuses generally to compete, and we’ll look forward to advancing that across in full measure for 2027.”

The treasurer has been outspoken on Charlotte-based Atrium Health and Raleigh-based WakeMed plan to merge, which would include a $2 billion Atrium commitment to WakeMed’s initiatives.

“There is a simple business principle that when suppliers consolidate and competition is reduced it is the consumers who suffer,” Briner said in a prepared statement. “This has been proven to be true time and again in the health care landscape, where prices continue to rise and patients are left with mounting medical debt.”

“I look forward to the Attorney General and FTC carefully scrutinizing this proposal and what it could mean for the people across our state,” Briner added. “If history is any guide, this merger will not benefit the public.”  

Wake County Commissioners have delayed any further action on the merger after the outcry from state and local officials.