Photo credit: Scott Walker Facebook page
Scott Walker
Scott Walker
Wisconsin voters will be asked an unprecedented question on Tuesday, April 3, which could lead to the elimination of the state treasurer—our state’s fiscal watchdog. Our founding fathers understood that checks and balances are critical to a functioning democracy and absolutely necessary to prevent corruption. Yet a little-known ballot initiative is asking Wisconsinites to eliminate an independent constitutional office and give more power to the executive branch.
Voters should be skeptical of efforts to consolidate power in the executive branch—no matter which party is in control. It simply invites corruption and misuse of our tax dollars. Currently, Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans control both chambers of the legislature, are in power and have certainly had their share of questionable and often corrupt practices. Someday, the Democrats will be back in power, and Wisconsin voters should want that same watchdog looking over their shoulders as well.
During the past several years, Walker and the Republicans in the state legislature have continued to move many of the important functions of the state treasurer’s office to the executive branch. Their plan was to gut the office and then argue that it should be eliminated, and with that elimination goes the independently elected fiscal watchdog who watches how our tax dollars are being spent.
Currently, one of the few functions left is that the state treasurer sits on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands (BCPL) and oversees critical state trust funds that support school libraries and invest in schools, local governments, infrastructure and public safety projects. The BCPL has invested more than $1 billion in communities throughout the state in the past 10 years alone and is responsible for the Common School Fund—the only dedicated source of K-12 school library funding in Wisconsin.
The state treasurer, like all current BCPL commissioners, is independently elected by Wisconsin voters. If the state treasurer position is eliminated, the lieutenant governor would become a BCPL Commissioner. In this case, Wisconsin would lose our fiscal watchdog, create an undue concentration of power within the executive branch and violate the financial integrity of our trust funds. The authors of our constitution understood these risks and built the essential checks and balances into the framework for a reason.
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Former BCPL commissioners—both Republicans and Democrats such as former Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, former State Treasurer Kurt Schuller and current Secretary of State Doug La Follette—rejected the idea of changing the makeup of the board in a 2013 op-ed, saying: “The structure of the board has served the trust funds well over the past 165 years. We maintain a long-term view focused on the prudent management of the trust assets without the consideration or influence of partisan politics.”
Proponents of eliminating the state treasurer’s office argue that getting rid of the constitutional office would have no real consequences for Wisconsinites because it retains so few of its original responsibilities. Both political parties have transferred financial duties from the treasurer to executive branch agencies over the years as a way to consolidate power. This includes cash management functions, the local government investment pool and the unclaimed property and college savings programs.
Opponents of eliminating the office, including former Republican State Treasurer Jack Voight, are concerned by the concerted effort to transfer power away from the independently elected treasurer. There is bi-partisan opposition to eliminating the state treasurer’s office in the Wisconsin State Legislature. Republicans and Democrats—including area lawmaker Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield)—voted against the resolution to eliminate the office during the 2017-’18 legislative session. “I have concerns with eliminating a constitutional office that has the potential to be an effective, impartial watchdog on budgetary matters,” said Kapenga in an interview with Now Media Group after the vote.
According to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, “Wisconsin is one of only two states where the state treasurer is not responsible for banking services and the only state in which the treasurer is not responsible for cash management.” Financial oversight is critical to protecting the integrity of public funds. There is some evidence that transferring key financial oversight duties away from the treasurer and to the executive branch has already put public funds at risk. To wit:
• In 2016, the Legislative Audit Bureau reported that there were inadequate cash records for the Employee Trust Fund.
• The 2016 Annual Financial Report contained inaccurate numbers.
• The Unclaimed Property Program is less effective. After taking the program over from the treasurer, the Department of Revenue is conducting fewer audits to find unclaimed property, resulting in lost state revenue.
If the referendum to eliminate the office on Tuesday, April 3, is successful, all of the state treasurer’s current duties, including oversight of the state trust funds, will be transferred to the executive branch. “The value of the office is priceless,” Republican Voight said in a recent interview with Madison’s Isthmus. “It’s so very important to have checks and balances.” Rep. Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), a co-author of the constitutional amendment, says that if voters decide to keep the office, he will draft a bill to restore the state treasurer’s duties.
When Wisconsin voters head to the polls, they will have the final say in this debate. Should we amend our state constitution to eliminate a statewide constitutional officer for the first time in Wisconsin history, or does the state need a fiscal watchdog?
