The Office of the Treasurer of State is established in Article V, Part Third of the Constitution of the State of Maine. The Treasurer is elected biennially, at the first session of the Legislature, by joint ballot of the Senators and Representatives in convention, with a limit of four consecutive terms in office. Once elected, Treasurers are constitutionally prohibited from engaging in any business of trade, commerce, brokerage, or of agency for any merchant or trader. The Treasurer is barred from involvement with any political action committee.
The core duties of the Treasurer’s Office are debt management, cash management, trust fund administration and unclaimed property administration. Other major tasks assigned to the Treasurer are directorships on many of Maine’s quasi-governmental debt issuing agencies and distributions under the Municipal Revenue Sharing Program. These duties may be summarized as follows:
Cash Management: Providing centralized cash collection processes, cash management, and coordination of banking services for all state agencies; Actively investing cash reserves to generate earnings; Reconciling bank records with the accounting records of the State; Providing revenue projections on cash pool earnings and tobacco settlement fund payments.
Debt Management: Managing the issuance of both Bond Anticipation Notes (BANs) and Bonds; Assuring timely debt payments; Managing credit rating agency relationships; Collecting and publishing state debt statistics; Providing debt service projections for legislative and executive budgeting efforts; Preparing the Treasurer’s Statement for publication on ballots whenever general obligation debt proposals are sent out to voters; Determining annually the need for Tax Anticipation Notes (TANs), Lines of Credit, (LOCs) or other short-term debt vehicles to cover cash flow needs within a fiscal year; Arranging for short-term debt if necessary; and Coordinating with cash pool management to maximize cash pool support for General Fund cash flow needs as an alternative to issuing debt.
Unclaimed Property Administration: Collecting unclaimed financial assets held by Maine entities and companies doing business in Maine; Cataloging and preserving those assets; making the full list of owners available online at maine.gov/upsearch; actively reaching out to owners by mail, participating in town meetings and soliciting town clerks; providing new properties for legislative outreach to claimants in each legislative district; Maintaining a permanent record of all received properties; Developing and supporting easy claim-making processes that are available via the internet, telephone, telefax and mail; Processing claims made by rightful owners; and educating holders on Maine’s unclaimed property law.
State-Held Trust Administration: Managing the investments, records and distribution of assets held in trust by the State of Maine pursuant to the terms of nearly eighty (80) active state-held trusts with an aggregate value of approximately $25.5 million; Engaging and overseeing independent investment advisors to professionally manage the funds; Allocating investment earnings amongst the beneficiaries pursuant to the directive of each separate trust.
Directorships: The Treasurer is a voting member on the board of the Adaptive Equipment Loan Program (AELP), Board of Emergency Municipal Finance (BEMF), Dirigo Health (DHB), Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), Indian Housing Mortgage Insurance Committee (IHMIC), Maine State Housing Authority (MSHA), Maine Public Employees Retirement System (MainePERS), Maine Health and Higher Education Facilities Authority (MHHEFA), Maine Governmental Facilities Authority (MGFA), Maine Municipal Bond Bank (MMBB), Maine Public Utility Financing Bank (MPUFB), Maine Vaccine Board (MVB), NextGen Investment Advisory Committee (NextGen), and is a non voting member of the Dirigo Health Board.
Municipal Revenue Sharing: Recognizing the Controller’s transfer of 5.0% of all state income, sales and corporate tax revenues received each month into the Revenue Sharing account. Calculating the pro-rata share for each of the 494 municipalities and distributing those funds each month; maintaining the historical record of payments issued; providing projections and sharing information in response to written, phone, and website requests.