Florida Lifts Pension Ban on Tobacco Stocks

Florida officials lifted a four-year ban on the purchase of tobacco stocks for the state government’s $100-billion pension fund.

Florida, which in 1997 ordered the sell-off of $825 million in tobacco stocks, becomes the latest and largest state to rescind restrictions on the historically profitable but controversial equities.

After a unanimous vote by a panel overseeing Florida’s pension investments, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said he and the two other panel members believed they should not tie the hands of portfolio managers who guide the investments of the pension fund on behalf of more than 750,000 current and former state workers.