Word on the street is that Gov. Bullock has removed Gary Buchanan as chairman of the Board of Investments and replaced him with someone else because he was unhappy with Buchanan’s op-ed and later TV interviews about state employee pensions.

Insiders say that Eric Feaver had complained to the governor about Buchanan’s op-ed and insisted that the Governor “do something about it”.

The BOI is charged with managing Montana’s investment portfolio. Buchanan recently voiced his expert opinion about the state pension liability in an op-ed published last month. He noted:

A real solution gores everyone’s ox. On top of the state’s responsibility, beneficiaries need to make some changes. Consideration must be given to higher employee contributions, more reasonable cost of living adjustments, increased anti-spiking provisions, reasonable actuarial assumptions, a review of unfunded benefit increases in the last decade, increased years of service and increased minimum retirement ages.

If there’s one ox that shall not be gored, it’s Eric Feaver’s. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the players in Montana politics, Feaver, president of the MEA-MFT, is the Rasputin to Montana Democrat governors. Even Brian Schweitzer knew better than to ignore the demands of the head of the biggest financial contributor to Democrat candidates and issues. The Golden Rule of the Montana Democrat Party is “Whatever Eric wants, Eric gets.”

Obviously Neo-Governor Stevie is a quick learner.

As it was, so shall it be.