TREASURER:

GOP lawmakers had pushed to end state position

Voters reject a statewide constitutional amendment to end the office of state treasurer.

Voters Tuesday chose to keep Wisconsin’s 170-year-old treasurer’s office.

By keeping the office, voters gave candidates the opportunity to campaign for the position being vacated by GOP incumbent Matt Adamczyk.

With little spending on either side of the referendum and no known polling, it wasn’t clear until Tuesday which side would prevail in the contest. Some voters may have been surprised just to find the question on their ballots.

“The point of the constitutional amendment is to let the people decide,” Adamczyk told the Journal Sentinel. “We seemingly will have a state treasurer and it will be up to future legislatures to decide what the state treasurer will do.”

The treasurer will now remain as 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 had been eliminated, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would have taken over that seat on the board.

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 lost its duties to other agencies.

Two years ago, lawmakers removed one of the treasurer’s last responsibilities — running the state’s unclaimed property program, leaving the office with just a single worker: Adamczyk.

GOP lawmakers voted in two consecutive sessions to eliminate the state treasurer, but because it’s a constitutional change the measure needed to be approved by voters as well.

Republicans tended to favor eliminating the state treasurer, while Democrats were more skeptical of the idea.

Adamczyk, who is now running for the Assembly seat being vacated by Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), said the office and its $114,000 annual budget weren’t needed and cutting both would provide savings for taxpayers.

But former GOP Treasurer Jack Voight said the office should be preserved and expanded so its occupant can advocate for fiscal responsibility in the state budget.

“I’m flabbergasted that the results are as high as they are,” he said.

As of Monday, only one candidate, Republican Thomas Hiller of Madison, had registered to run for treasurer.