Republican running to be state treasurer wants the office to stay in its lane

The Republican candidate for state treasurer said he knows the job lacks many duties, and he wants to keep it that way.

John Leiber is a real estate attorney from Racine. Discussing his campaign on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “The Morning Show” recently, Leiber said a 2018 referendum on keeping the state treasurer’s office did not mean voters wanted to expand the powers of the office.

“They wanted to keep the office as it was,” he said.

Leiber is running against Democrat Aaron Richardson, the mayor of Fitchburg.

The election is Nov. 8.

The following interview with Leiber was edited for brevity and clarity.

Kate Archer Kent: What would be your top priorities if elected state treasurer?

John Leiber: As treasurer, I want to focus on the duties that still remain in the office. The main one is to be on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, and that’s an agency that manages a $1.4 billion trust fund and manages 77,000 acres of state land. The income from that is distributed around the state to public school districts. Last year, it was about $40 million.

So, every dollar that is distributed is one less dollar that has to be put on the property tax roll. And my goal as treasurer is to maximize the income, so we distribute the most aid we can around the state.

KAK: How would you work with the state attorney general and secretary of state on this board?

JL: The most important thing is to recognize that it is a board. It’s not just an executive position. So, you have to work with other people, and you have to come up with (ideas) to maximize income.

Also, it’s an oversight board. So, you have to work with the other board members to make sure that the agency is doing what it’s supposed to be doing. And I think it is. But we always need to have elected officials watching over it just in case.

READ MORE: Wisconsin treasurer race focuses on whether to expand the office

KAK: What would be your guiding principles for managing the public funds from the board?

JL: The most important principle is because this money is held in trust, we have to look out for all the Wisconsin taxpayers. So, I don’t think we should be bringing in political ideas into this and trying to tweak the investments to fit our political viewpoints.

We need to make sure we’re trying to maximize the income and make sure the balance of the money is safe. So, I don’t think we should be implementing any new programs that are already done in other agencies. And I don’t think we should be trying to tailor our investments to fit some political goal. I think we should be looking at maximizing the returns on the investment because that’s what benefits the people of Wisconsin.

KAK: The state treasurer in Wisconsin is one of the weakest in the nation after powers had been reduced over the years. Why do you support keeping the status quo?

JL: Four years ago, the state voters had a referendum, and they got to choose whether to keep the treasurer’s office or get rid of it. And the voters chose to keep it by about 61 percent in a statewide referendum. What they didn’t vote is to increase the office. They wanted to keep the office as it was. I don’t believe we need to grow the office just because we have somebody in there who wants to do more. People say they want to “bring back the powers.” Well, those powers have been given to other agencies.

It doesn’t make sense to move programs around just because the treasurer wants more to do. The current duties of being a board member are enough for one person, and that’s all that is remaining in the treasurer’s office: one person, the treasurer. There is no other staff. We just need somebody in the treasurer’s office who can actually fulfill the board role. We don’t need to add more duties just for the sake of adding more jobs to the treasurer’s office.

READ MORE: Politics coverage from Wisconsin Public Radio

KAK: On the treasurer’s website, it lists providing transparency for taxpayers as a directive. What does this mean to you?

JL: I’ve actually looked through the state statutes and that duty doesn’t appear. So, it appears to be more of an aspirational goal for the current treasurer. It’s not one of the actual duties of the treasurer.

The one thing with the office is, because it has such (limited) powers, the treasurer is able to advocate for things that the treasurer believes in. If the current treasurer wants to do that, that’s fine. But there’s no special powers or duties that allow the treasurer to provide any extra transparency that any citizen (couldn’t) do in requesting public records or looking at the state budget.