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SACRAMENTO — An investment committee put off a decision Monday on whether California’s public employees pension fund should divest its tobacco stocks. 

The California Public Employees Retirement System panel wanted more information, spokeswoman Patricia Macht said. 

The CalPERS staff has recommended against selling the $600 million in stock, saying it would cost at least $30 million. 

But state Treasurer Phil Angelides, a member of the CalPERS board, said the tobacco investments have already lost money for the pension fund and are likely to lose more. 

Macht said the investment committee asked the staff to expand its analysis of the impact of selling off the tobacco stocks.  

The panel also wants to hear from, and question, experts about divestment, she said. 

The committee will consider the issue again Oct. 16, Macht said. 

The tobacco holdings account for less than 0.4 percent of the fund’s $172 billion in investments. 

The State Teachers Retirement System announced in June that it would sell off its more than $237 million in tobacco stocks, saying they were a bad investment. 

A bill requiring the two pension funds to sell their tobacco stocks passed the Senate last month but died in an Assembly committee. 

The bill’s supporters said the funds shouldn’t invest in tobacco companies when the state spends $630 million a year to treat people with smoking related illnesses and another $50 million annually on anti-tobacco education programs. 

CalPERS, the nation’s biggest employee pension system, covers about 330,000 retirees and 770,000 active state and local government employees.