Milligan Announces For State Treasurer
by February 26, 2013 7:29 am 89 views
Saline County Circuit Clerk Dennis Milligan took another step toward running for State Treasurer today by filing his papers to form an exploratory committee.
Milligan – who previously served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas listed some top Republican names on the committee, including former Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Highway Commissioner Madison Murphy, State Rep. Prissy Hickerson, former Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, and former first lady Gay White.
Milligan comments on the troubles that have plagued the Treasurer’s office under incumbent Democrat Martha Schoffner who is term limited after 2014.
“There have been some questions asked in recent months involving the investment of state money by the State Treasurer’s office. Bonds and other securities held by the state were sold before they matured. This reduced the amount of money the state received from these investments. That money was reinvested in bonds or other securities that paid a lower interest rate. Practices like this cost the state money in interest not received,” Milligan said. “This is important. Every dollar in interest the state receives from investments made by the State Treasurer is a dollar that doesn’t have to come out of the pockets of taxpayers to run state government.”
Milligan proposed one solution to prevent this from happening in the future.
“The answer is that it is difficult for the public to track what is happening with state investments administered by the State Treasurer’s Office. There is an easy fix to this,” he said. “Do you remember that Lt. Gov. Mark Darr was able to get the state checkbook put online for everyone with a computer or smart phone to watch? The Treasurer’s Office runs what is basically the state’s savings account. I want to put that on the Internet so such bad investments don’t happen again.”
Milligan is the first of several Republican statewide candidates who will likely seek to fill the down-the-ballot constitutional offices in 2014. Republicans won 3 of the 7 state’s constitutional offices in 2010, but did not run candidates for all the offices.
They are expected to field a full slate this time and may even have several primaries. State Rep. Duncan Baird is also rumored to be considering running for state treasurer, although currently he says he is focusing on the ongoing legislative session.
