Wisconsin State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk wants to be fired on April 3. The Republican supports an amendment on the ballot that will ask voters if the office of state treasurer should be eliminated from the state constitution. The position has been around since Wisconsin’s territorial days, but Adamczyk says it no longer serves a purpose.
“Just about all the [treasurer’s] duties have been moved to other agencies and there hasn’t ever really been a push to move them back,” says Adamczyk, who campaigned on eliminating the treasurer's office and was elected in 2015. If the amendment passes, he adds, it would save taxpayers money and be a “symbolic victory for smaller government.”
Jack Voight, also a Republican, served as state treasurer from 1995 to 2007. Although he doesn’t support the amendment, Voight agrees with Adamczyk that the treasurer has been rendered all but obsolete by the Legislature.
“There’s almost been a conspiracy over the years by the Legislature and the governor to transfer financial duties of the treasurer to agencies controlled by the governor,” Voight says. “They’ve chipped away all the duties and now the treasurer has almost nothing to do. Adamczyk has only made it worse by not taking his oath of office seriously.”
Voight says if voters reject the amendment, it would send a message to the Legislature to return power to the independently elected treasurer.
“The value of the office is priceless,” Voight says. “It’s so very important to have checks and balances. This is a power grab that’s been years in the making.”
The state constitution, ratified in 1848, established the position of state treasurer, but didn’t assign the office any specific responsibilities. However, the Legislature delegated various responsibilities to the office.
For more than 150 years, the treasurer’s main responsibilities were collecting taxes and other revenues and paying expenses authorized by the Legislature.
However, since 1911, the office has been targeted by lawmakers for elimination. The Legislature has voted on amendments to get rid of the office dozens of times. But until 2017, lawmakers failed to approve an amendment in two consecutive sessions — the requirement needed to get it on the ballot.
Unable to eliminate the office outright, the state Legislature and Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson slowly began taking duties away from the treasurer in the mid-’90s.
In 1995, lawmakers transferred responsibility for the safekeeping of securities purchased by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board from the treasurer’s office to the governor’s Department of Administration. In 2003, nearly all of the office’s cash management functions were transferred to the DOA. In 2011, the DOA also assumed responsibility for the state’s college saving and college tuition prepayment programs (known as EdVest) as well as management of the Local Government Investment Pool. In 2013, the job of administering the Unclaimed Property Program was transferred from the treasurer’s office to the Department of Revenue. And in 2015, lawmakers eliminated the assistant state treasurer position.
Today, the treasurer retains just one responsibility: A seat on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which manages state land assets to benefit public education and school libraries.
In most states with a treasurer, the office has considerable power, overseeing banking services and cash management, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
If the proposed amendment is approved, Wisconsin will join a handful of states without a treasurer. Most Democrats in the Assembly and Senate voted against the proposal. Notable exceptions were Assembly minority leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) and former minority leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha). Neither lawmaker returned several requests for comment.
Adamczyk defends the efforts to shift the treasurer’s duties to the governor’s office.
“The power grab rhetoric used by opponents of the amendment is a good use of words but it’s not the reality,” Adamczyk says. “The duties transferred are largely administrative. This isn’t about power. When the function of government fits better in another agency, I think it makes sense to move it.”
Voight counters that lawmakers have created the justification for getting rid of the office by slowly removing all of its powers.
“Over time, it’s been a drip, drip, drip situation of removing various programs to make it look like nothing has really happened to the office. This was done so [lawmakers] could say the office is no longer needed,” Voight says. “Meanwhile, the governor — through the agencies he oversees — has more power over the state’s finances than ever before. The chief executive officer of the state shouldn’t also be the chief financial officer.”
Secretary of State Doug La Follette — who has been elected 10 times since 1974 — has also seen many of his office’s powers transferred to other state agencies. He’s urging voters to reject the amendment eliminating the treasurer.
Along with the attorney general and the treasurer, the secretary of state sits on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands — the oldest state agency in Wisconsin. If the amendment passes this spring, the lieutenant governor will take the treasurer’s seat on the important financial board. La Follette worries that this might one day make it possible for the governor and the Legislature to gain access to more than $1 billion in assets controlled by the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.
“The Land Board has very productively managed its trust fund to benefit the school children of Wisconsin,” La Follette says. “I think eliminating the treasurer is part of a plan to get control of that money. The lieutenant governor is usually more closely aligned with the governor since they run together on a ticket. This will bring them one step closer to being able to convince the Commission to go along with some major changes that would give the governor’s office more control over these funds.”
Adamczyk dismisses this concern. He suspects the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands won’t change much if the lieutenant governor takes the treasurer’s seat.
“This Commission does have a lot of money and a lot of power,” Adamczyk says. “But whether it’s the treasurer or the lieutenant governor, there’s still someone elected on the board.”
Adamczyk also says the ultimate fate of the state treasurer isn’t up to the governor or the Legislature.
"The people get to decide what happens. It’s in their hands. If they reject the amendment, I don’t think there will be any more effort to eliminate the office,” says Adamczyk, who is running this fall for the Assembly seat now held by Dale Kooyenga, who is running for state Senate.
Voight is hoping that lawmakers will restore the treasurer’s office to its former glory if voters reject the amendment.
“The founders of this state were wise to create this independent office to provide a check on executive power,” Voight says. “The treasurer could be the financial watchdog of the state…. But voters have to save the office first.”
Editor's note: This story originally said Secretary of State Doug La Follette has been elected 11 times since 1974. It's actually 10.
