Lawmakers To Hold Hearing On Eliminating State Treasurer’s Office

State lawmakers will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposal that would eliminate the state treasurer’s office.

Officials have been pushing to cut the state treasurer position for years. Even incumbent treasurer Matt Adamczyk says he supports the change.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Sen. Dan Feyen, R-Fond du Lac, said, “This is an office that is literally doing nothing but one meeting a month, maybe two meetings a month.”

Those meetings are for the treasurer’s responsibilities on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, one of the office’s remaining responsibilities. Many responsibilities formerly held by the office have been moved to another state agencies since the 1980s, Feyen said.

“Not a lot of people are aware that we have a treasurer’s office that does anything,” Feyen said. “So that’s part of the problem, we have an office that’s not really doing anything that’s benefiting Wisconsinites out there.”

To eliminate a constitutional office, lawmakers have to approve the plan in two consecutive sessions, before it goes to a statewide referendum. The plan already passed last session.