Efficient and Effective Government

The Treasurer’s office touches every single dollar of taxpayer money that flows through the state of North Dakota. From day to day cash management for our agencies, to overseeing numerous endowment funds, the Treasurer impacts billions of taxpayer dollars. We need to make sure this is being handled efficiently and that we don’t have any wasteful spending or delays in distributing funds back to our citizens.

 

Focus on Technology

I’ve built a reputation as being a leader on technology during my time in the State House. I led the charge to bring new digital educational resources to our universities which have reduced student costs on textbooks by nearly $2M per year. I chaired the IT Department budget where we created uniformity across state agencies, invested in cyber security and provided upgrades to our systems to protect our citizens information. I will bring this same approach to the Treasurer’s office, and make sure that we are staying on the cutting edge and leveraging new systems in order to create more efficiencies for our citizens.

 

Increase Transparency and Accountability

My goal as Treasurer would be to increase Transparency for how your money is being spent across state government. This doesn’t just mean having the information available but making it easy to find and easy to understand for all of our citizens. Only by shining a light on how your money is being spent can we empower citizens to hold their government officials accountable.

 

Sound Fiscal Management

The Treasurer sits on major boards that have a huge impact on North Dakota. The State Investment Board, the Land Board, the Teacher’s Fund for Retirement and others collectively invest over $24B of taxpayer money. These endowment funds are held for the benefit of our taxpayers and generate returns and revenue that is used to provide funding for essential services without having to burden our taxpayers with higher tax rates. I will make sure that we are doing our diligence with our fund managers, following sound strategies, and getting good results for our citizens.

 

Supporting Education

The Treasurer has a large impact on Education in North Dakota. In addition to being tasked with promoting financial literacy training in our state, the Treasurer’s position on the boards investing the Common Schools Trust Fund, the University and School Lands Endowment, and the Teacher’s Retirement Fund means that the funding of our education system is impacted by who serves as our Treasurer. The Common Schools Trust Fund alone contributes nearly 15% of the total cost to educate our students in North Dakota. It’s important that we have a Treasurer who believes in our education system and supports giving our teachers and students the resources they need to thrive.

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