Dear Friends: 

The State Treasurer is an Office that was created in Wisconsin’s Constitution.  It was created to provide a check on the authority of the Governor and Legislature on State financial matters.  The Treasurer has the same Constitutional authority as does the Attorney General.  The Legislature has chosen to endow the Treasurer with the administration of the State unclaimed property fund, the Local Government Investment program, and, the State Edvest college savings program.

Unfortunately, the role of the Treasurer has diminished, so much so that there are growing calls to abolish the Office.  In fact, that’s the Teabag candidate’s platform.

But, If you abolish the Office, you don’t “reduce government;“ you only eliminate a voice of the people, a duly elected, independent, Constitutional Officer. 

We can do better.

But we need a voice like that envisioned in the Constitution, a State Treasurer that provides an independent resource on State budget and financial matters, an independent voice than can help advise the public and elected officials about issues that affect taxpayers.

I’ve got two decades in public budgeting and I can provide a voice, which we need now, more than ever.  There are important policy issues that are simply not being addressed.  Consider, for example,  the issue of public pensions, which represent an enormous commitment to the public, in terms of tax dollars, and to public servants, whose service should be appropriately recognized and compensated.  But should the managers of the State pension fund be made wealthy with bonuses while losing $26 billion and cutting benefits for retirees?  And how is it that five Milwaukee-area school districts might lose millions from  their investment in derivates?  We’re seeing Wall St.-creep seeping into the public sector, but the bonus culture, the bonus ethic, does not belong in public service.  We’ve seen what it did on Wall St.--why would we want that in the public sector.  I’ve never seen a merit or bonus scheme in the public sector that achieves what it is supposed to.  Few, if any, public officials are talking about these issues, but they sure should be, and I will in this campaign and as Treasurer.  That’s why the State Treasurer is partisan, to talk about issues.

And if you raise the profile of the Office, you raise the profile of programs such as the unclaimed property program, which could be administered much more efficiently.   And we could certainly use better leadership of the Edvest saving program, which recently was left without its top administrator because of unwise patronage, and for years the program excluded thousands of divorced parents from full participation, a terrible inequity.

Government is about improving people’s lives.  That’s why I want to be State Treasurer.

Some folks will continue to think that the State Treasurer is a Constitutional relic--to them, I say:  you’ve not much to lose then if you cast your vote for me.

But, I hope you will consider that I will use my decades on the front lines of budgeting and policymaking  to help educate the public about important issues, to reinvigorate the role of the Treasurer as an independent voice on State financial matters and to reclaim the vision of the Treasurer as included in the Constitution.   
                
I’ve always loved our system of governance,however flawed it might be.  As a kid, I used to tag along with my Dad to various campaign headquarters, collecting political paraphernalia.  When I moved to Wisconsin from  Boston in 1978,  I was 19 years old, a year out of high school, not sure what I was going to do, but I was well aware of Wisconsin’s reputation for clean government, the legacy of Fighting Bob LaFollette, and I was hopeful.

It’s been a few years since, and we’ve had some victories, many disappointments-, but I am still hopeful. 

As a candidate for State Treasurer, I offer you an alternative, a different vision for the Office.

If elected, I promise to provide a forceful and independent voice on State financial issues and to use my 25 years  in public sector budgeting and investments to build a State Treasurer’s Office that is efficient, responsive, that honors public service and is reflective of our best democratic values.

Thank you for considering my candidacy.