Voters to face ballot question on whether to eliminate the post of Wisconsin treasurer

MADISON - Wisconsin voters on April 3 will have to decide on whether to eliminate the 170-year-old office of state treasurer, but many of them don't even know it.

The current Republican state Treasurer Matt Adamczyk is campaigning to eliminate his own office and a former GOP treasurer, Jack Voight, is campaigning to save it. But neither side has spent much money or gotten much attention. 

"About ninety-nine percent of the people are not aware of this being a ballot issue," Voight said in an interview. 

The treasurer is one of the original state officers created by the Wisconsin Constitution in 1848, along with the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state.

The treasurer once played an important role in state finance but the office has gradually lost its duties to other agencies.

Two years ago, lawmakers removed one of its last major responsibilities — running the state's unclaimed property program, leaving the office with just a single worker: Adamczyk. One remaining duty for the treasurer is sitting on a board overseeing certain state lands and funds used to help pay for school libraries and the University of Wisconsin System. 

Republicans in the Legislature voted in two consecutive sessions to eliminate the state treasurer, but because it's a constitutional change the measure must be approved by voters as well. 

Adamczyk, who is now running for the Assembly seat being vacated by Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), said the office isn't needed and cutting it would provide a small savings for taxpayers. 

He pointed out that he and his GOP predecessor, Kurt Schuller, both campaigned in 2014 and in 2010, respectively, on eliminating the position. Given how its role has been diminished, there's little reason to keep paying the treasurer a salary and spending the effort to hold elections for the position, Adamczyk said. 

"That's what people are expecting of government — efficiency," he said. 

The treasurer is one of three state officials sitting on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which manages about $1 billion in assets and 77,000 acres of state land to help benefit public education in the state. If the treasurer is eliminated, then Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would take over that seat on the board. 

Kleefisch spokesman Daniel Suhr said the lieutenant governor would do whatever the voters asked.

"If her bosses (the voters) choose to adopt this amendment, she would focus on better integrating the board's economic development loan portfolio into the state's overall job creation efforts," Suhr said in a statement.

The treasurer's office is currently budgeted to spend about $114,000 annually.

For Voight, that amount is still money well spent because the treasurer can be an advocate for fiscal responsibility. He pointed out that the treasurer's salary is a minuscule fraction of the $37.14 billion in state and federal tax dollars that Wisconsin will spend this year. 

"It will silence the financial voice of our state and silence the checks and balances," Voight said of the proposal.

He said that if voters remove the state treasurer, Wisconsin would be the only state without an elected treasurer, comptroller or auditor. He said lawmakers should return power to the treasurer since that official is directly accountable to voters. 

Voight also gave the example of how as treasurer in 2003 and 2004 he advocated for investors in the state's college savings fund, EdVest, when the then-investment manager, Strong Capital Management, was being investigated for improper trading that disadvantaged small-time investors. 

The treasurer's office no longer has any oversight role over EdVest or a seat on the College Savings Program Board — that is one more set of duties that the Legislature took away. 

Adamczyk said that the state still had nonpartisan budget analysts and auditors at the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and the Legislative Audit Bureau and that lawmakers and Gov. Scott Walker can still look out for taxpayers — or pay the price at the ballot box. 

"There's 132 lawmakers who can do that," he said of watching the state's finances. 

As for returning power to the office, Adamczyk noted that Democrats controlled the Legislature and governor's office from January 2009 to January 2011 and that Republicans have controlled all of state government since then. Neither party has returned duties to the treasurer — a sign it's unlikely to ever happen, he said.  

The referendum reads: “Elimination of state treasurer. Shall sections 1 and 3 of article VI and sections 7 and 8 of article X of the constitution be amended, and section 17 of article XIV of the constitution be created, to eliminate the office of state treasurer from the constitution and to replace the state treasurer with the lieutenant governor as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands?”