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Primary Conversations: Treasurer (D)
Two short months ago Oregon's treasurer, Ben Westlund, died of cancer. The governor appointed former Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler to replace him in the treasurer's office until the next election. Now that time has come and Wheeler is facing competition in the Democratic primary from state senator Rick Metsger (D-Welches). The winner will face state senator Chris Telfer (R-Bend) in the general election.
The state treasurer is the state's chief financial officer overseeing (among other things) the state's investments, bond sales, and 529 college savings program.
The new treasurer will also have to steer the state through two tricky situations — one fiscal and one ethical. The fiscal one is that despite a healthy rebound from the 2008 stock market hemorrhage, the state's Public Employee Retirement System is still in the red. (Although it's actually performing better than most state systems.)
The ethical one has been stickier, and more prominent in this primary race. As first reported by The Oregonian in a series of articles, investment officers for the Treasury were often wined and dined (and golf coursed) in luxury courtesy of the private companies who manage millions of dollars of state money. In some cases, these officers were even reimbursed by the state for free meals. Ted Wheeler has announced new limits on perks at the agency, as well as a review of travel policies; Rick Metsger has responded with a more sweeping set of reforms.
Meanwhile, big-ticket (and big money) ideas keep coming: Richard Lariviere, the president of the University of Oregon, has proposed selling $1 billion in bonds to stabilize funding for the university.
What Treasury issues are you paying attention to? Are you watching your PERS and college savings statements? What questions do you have for the two Democrats who want to manage the state's coffers?
Tagged as: 2010 election · treasurer
Photo credit: AMagill / Creative Commons
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In response to your comments on encouraging economic education in Oregon. I have attended 3 different high schools here in Oregon and one in southern California. I attended required civics and economics classes and realized all but one focused only on the large scale system and not individual finances.
The most helpful things I learned about finances in high school was how to file taxes, balance a check book, create an individual budget, invest in stocks, and live within my means. My instructor conducted a project were we selected a job and its cooresponding pay randomly out of a hat. We actually visited a grocery store to learn how to budget for food, invested fake money in the stock market, and simulated renting an apartment and paying bills.
How do the candidates plan on standarizing this education statewide to focus on teaching individual finance responsibility?
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Today, the rainy day fund doesn't have enough funds to adequately protect Oregonians from the current economic catastrophe. How would you repair the rainy day fund so it works better?
Would it be feasible to convert the rainy day fund into an endowment that would grow until it could sustain the cost of running the state? The endowment could replace income, business and property taxes. It would be used to provide free k-24 education for Oregon residents. The state budget would be provided by the endowment.
What I envision requires lots of changes in the attitude of Oregon's citizens. One, Oregonians would have to build the endowment for 50-100 years while paying for ongoing operations. Two, Oregonians would have to believe that the equity markets will remain a viable way to build and sustain the endowment. Three, Oregonians would have to be taught how to manage resources so they can ween themselves off using debt incorrectly. Four, Oregonians would have to think beyond their current self interest and consider what's good for sustaining their progeny and the state.