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At OHEA..org.

We begin a series of conversations with the major party candidates for statewide office this week, starting with State Treasurer.

Their plans and positions in their own words this week in the state of Ohio, Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

This week we start a series of interviews we do every four years, conversations with the candidates, specifically the ten major party candidates for the five statewide executive offices of Governor Secretary of state, attorney general auditor.

And this week, treasurer will air these interviews in the order in which they were conducted.

Starting with the first interview I did this week with the mayor of Marion Scott Shatzer, the Democratic nominee for treasurer.

I've been involved in public policy for over 32 years.

So I actually started off with Sherrod Brown in 1990 as his summertime driver.

And then after that campaign, I had the pleasure to work for the only person in American history who was a county treasurer, a state Treasurer, and now was the United States Treasurer.

Mary Ellen Withrow.

So I worked in the Treasurer's office when she was and then public policy in those days.

So it just became a right fit.

It was the right time in my life.

This is my 15th year as being mayor of my hometown of Marion Ohio, and I just got tired of sitting in the mayor's office watching and listening to the scandals taking place in the state, watching and listening to one party rule with a dictatorial power that didn't allow other voices to come in.

And when the opportunity presented itself, I said, that's the race for me and I'm getting in.

Do you have any specific plans to change what's already going on in the state treasurer's office under your Republican opponent, Robert Frank?

Well, I'll tell you what, the one of the biggest issues taking place right now are the designated appointments by the State Treasurer to the five pension boards.

We are seeing millions of Ohioans, retirees and active members.

We're talking about police officers, firefighters, teachers, school support staff.

We're talking about highway workers corrections officers.

These folks make up about a quarter of our population.

They're working harder.

They're working longer.

They're paying more and they're getting less when they retire.

I believe that they have worked with dignity, so they should retire with that same dignity so they can live with dignity in the state of Ohio.

So it is an important issue for me to take a close look at the treasurer's designated appointments to those five boards.

I will have an open door policy with all of the active members in those five pension boards.

I will sit down with them and discuss the issues that are important to them.

If you take retired teachers, for example, they have not had a cost of living increase and more than five years and after the, you know, the economic situation that we went through earlier this year with inflation, it's a disgrace that they have not given these retired teachers their cost of living increases.

They did get one this year, but for the first time since 20.

17.

You're correct.

You did say that you would initiate a comprehensive compensation study of stress.

And we've covered the issue of stress and what's going on in that retirement system here on the show because you want to ensure the pension funds are strong.

I think it's imperative that the pension funds are strong in the state of Ohio.

You know, when you take a look at the most recent issue with the state teachers losing $3 billion and then the board turns right around a few days later or a week later and gives out nearly $10 million in bonuses, I'm not opposed to bonuses, but I am opposed to giving out bonuses when you are losing billions of dollars and the retired teachers and the active teachers are the ones that are ultimately going to suffer under the policies and procedures that we have right now.

Sprague has criticized President Biden for his student loan forgiveness plan, which would help many of the 1.7 million Ohioans who have federal student loans.

He's also tweeted a lot about inflation, specifically blaming Democrats and Biden for it.

What do you think of those criticisms?

Is inflation even something that a state treasurer could do anything about?

Well, first of all, I think when you hear those types of criticisms, it just standard operating procedure for the other side to to blame the opposing party or the party that's in power in Washington.

I think there's enough blame to go around everywhere.

It's a national issue.

It's a worldwide issue.

We're coming out of the pandemic.

I think we need to be cognizant of that.

I think that the policies that the Biden administration has gotten through the legislature in Washington are ultimately helping.

We're seeing the price at the pump come down.

We're seeing inflation come down.

There was gridlock when it came to the supply chain, supply chain that's being untangled right now.

So I don't hear him saying, oh, yeah, great.

Gas went from $5 to three 50 ago.

And now it's the constant criticism that exists out there that isn't good for the working people of the state of Ohio.

What are your thoughts on the student loan forgiveness student loan?

Look, I know that my opponent and I both have young adult children in college.

If he says that he is not going to accept those student loan forgiveness for his children, then go ahead and criticize.

But my wife and I, we are hardworking Ohioan and like many other folks that are going to watch the show in the upcoming weeks, we are middle class Ohioans.

As a mayor, I don't make a lot of money, even though sometimes people think all elected officials do.

My wife is a public school teacher for 25 years.

She teaches music and we send both of our daughters to state schools.

And we still struggle to send them to those state schools.

So let's address the real issue, and that is when you send your child to a state school and it is hard for a middle class family to be able to afford to do that.

That's the real problem.

So let's focus our attention at the problem at hand and not go chasing ghosts around the state of Ohio.

Democrats have not run well statewide in these executive offices since 2010.

And this midterm is predicted to be good for Republicans because the party in the White House doesn't usually do well in the midterms, though conventional wisdom may be completely out the window this year.

Democrats have also and you mentioned at the top of this interview, been talking up the theme of the culture of corruption in Columbus.

That has not worked well in the past.

I mean, with E court or the payday loan scandal, why do you think the Democrats might do well or better this time around?

And why do you think that theme of culture of corruption might track this time when it hasn't before?

I think Democrats are going to do better this year for one reason, and that is the choice issue.

Women are fired up.

Women are going to be the deciding factor in the state of Ohio on who are elected officials are going to be for the next four years.

And in some cases in the legislature the next two years.

Everywhere I go, I get the question, where do you stand on the choice issue?

Well, let me tell you, I do have two young adult daughters who are very pro-choice.

So I stand with my daughters on the choice decision.

I will use my voice to speak out for pro-choice voters and I will cast my vote for pro-choice candidates in the state of Ohio, because that's what Ohioans want.

And it's also not good for economic development, the state we need to be able to attract women to the state of Ohio.

If there is a labor shortage in the state and there are so many jobs to fill, why would you do something like the governor and the Republicans have that's going to shun women away from the state of Ohio?

We need to be attracting women and qualified workers in the state because it now becomes an economic development issue.

It's interesting because I was going to ask you about that issue, because there are many Democrats around the country who are saying that the abortion issue might not apply to, say, the treasurer's office, but it is actually coming down and becoming an issue in their campaigns.

The Democratic state treasurer candidate in Connecticut said that that state, if she's elected, will not invest in companies that don't, as she put it, do the right thing by their employees.

And part of doing that right thing is to support a woman's right to safe, legal abortion.

What are your thoughts on this issue and how it will?

How would you and the Treasurer's office deal with that issue?

Look, the Treasurer is the watchdog of all the state's investments.

There are over $230 billion.

We just talked about the stress losing $3 billion.

We can't afford to lose billions of dollars in the investments that we have in the state of Ohio.

So all evaluate that.

When I become the State Treasurer, But those are all things that are on the table that my team and I will take a close look at when the time comes.

When I walk the picket line with the Columbus teachers.

A couple of weeks ago I was surrounded by a group of teachers that were walking the picket line.

And the very first question they had for me was about their pension.

That was the second question.

But the first question is where do you stand on pro-choice issues?

And when I told them a cheer went up from those teachers that were standing on the picket line, Democrats again, have not done that well in these statewide elections.

So it's likely that you will need Republican voters, people who voted Republican in the past to vote for you to win.

So what do you want?

Republican aides to know about you?

How do you plan to try to reach some of those Republicans who might be on the fence?

Was a watchdog of the state treasury.

And as a mayor of my hometown, I have always been a fiscal conservative.

I love it how the Republicans have been able to take the high ground on that.

But I tell folks back home where I come from in Maryland that you cannot find a more fiscal conservative elected official in the entire county than I have, and then I am.

So if you don't have the money, you shouldn't do it.

And if you want to do it, you better find the money.

So I will be that fiscal conservative because I think it's what the voters want.

I think that's how we all operate in our own personal home finances.

And so that's the kind of person that I'm going to be as your state treasurer, very judicious in our investments and keeping an eye on everything, because I will pinch every penny and I will watch over every dollar invested by the state.

It's likely that the House and Senate in the state House will stay in Republican hands.

How will you reach out to Republican leaders in those chambers to try to tell them what you're up to and what you're doing?

You know, we need more public officials that understand that collaboration and cooperation actually move the dial forward, not backwards.

I think sometimes now we have elected officials in state government that think that moves the dial backwards.

I have built my entire mayoral administration on collaborating and cooperate and I will continue to do that down here.

If it's good for Ohio voters, then I am willing to sit down at the table and discuss the issues with you.

If it's good for the investments of the state of Ohio, then absolutely, I will work across the aisle when necessary.

And when the other side of the aisle wants to work collaboratively and cooperatively together, I know Democrats have not been able to achieve the fundraising success that Republicans have.

And I was looking at your social media.

You're not on Twitter.

Your Facebook page is a lot more about what you're doing as mayor of Marion.

How do you reach out to people when there's not that much money and you're not really having that presence on social media?

Well, again, when you're in the party that's been out in the cold and out in the wilderness for almost 30 years, except for a quick blip with the Strickland administration and winning and few of those statewide races.

And I think they recaptured the House then in 2008.

Yeah, it is a challenge, there's no doubt about it.

But I hope what the voters see in Scott Scherzer as somebody who actually enjoys what he's doing.

I love campaigning across the state.

I'm going back to places that I haven't been to in years was shared.

And Mary Ellen and I am going to places that I've never been before and meeting the folks of the state of Ohio are so important.

So I think once they see me and they know who I am and what I have in my heart for the state of Ohio, I hope that the votes will come our way and my way, especially later this week.

I talked with Robert Sprague, the Republican former city auditor and treasurer of Findlay, then state representative and now current state treasurer.

First of all, we'd like to continue the work that we've done already in the office, and I'll talk a little bit about that.

I think it's tremendously important to we're not done.

When we came in, I wanted to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.

I wanted to be a wise investor in the future of Ohio and I wanted to be a bold innovator for the people of the state of Ohio.

And we have several projects that right now are in process that involve all of those things.

One of the most notable is our Results Ohio project, because quite frankly, we need new ways of figuring out how to launch projects in the state of Ohio that actually work.

And this is going to help save us money in the long term.

It's going to protect taxpayers.

But maybe most importantly is we're going to be able to develop some new solutions that make a difference in people's lives.

And our first project on that is Vision to Learn Down in Appalachia, Ohio, that helps Appalachian kids in multiple counties down in Appalachia be able to get eyeglasses from a mobile eyeglass clinic for the first time.

And so you have kids that are ten, 11 or 12 years old that are getting eyeglasses for the very first time because the financial incentives are aligned through the results.

Ohio Project.

So that's something that we're looking forward to continuing.

One of the things that you did discontinue was the state's Bitcoin acceptance program, and he plans to bring that back.

No, Why?

You know, I think it's just well, you've seen the volatility recently of cryptocurrency.

I think three years ago, some people thought that it was crazy for us to step away from the cryptocurrency.

My thought on it was I wanted to only accept for the settlements of the state's debts, US dollars hard currency, because I knew that I could count on those.

And also, I didn't want anybody.

I never wanted a taxpayer to be short changed.

So if they paid, for instance, through this cryptocurrency portal, there was always a chance that if bad things happened and the vendor imploded, that they would lose their money and they'd have to pay again.

And I didn't want that to happen.

To anybody in the state of Ohio.

And frankly, I'm glad that we're not on the bleeding edge of that because, you know, over this last summer, as the monetary supply has has contracted the cryptocurrency craze has kind of imploded.

And it's a good thing for the Treasury of the state not to be on the bleeding edge of that.

We've covered concerns by retired teachers about the state teachers retirement system on this show.

And your Democratic opponent says he'll look at the Treasurer's designated appointments to the five pension boards and initiate a comprehend of compensation study.

Are you at all concerned about the five pension funds?

Is there are there any plans that you have to deal with any of your concerns about those pension funds?

Well, through the Ohio Revised Code, the role of the Treasurer is spelled out.

You are the custodian, which means that essentially if they bio-security your job is to make sure that they have possession of that security and make sure that the money transferred correctly.

It specifically says in the Ohio revised code that the Treasurer shall not make investment decisions for any of the pension systems.

And so our role as custodians to make sure that the money is there for the pensioners and make sure all the trades are executed correctly we're kind of the fiduciary, if you will, to make sure that everything, the money is actually there in the securities are actually there.

And our trust department does a fabulous job of that.

But by necessity it means that I have to, as the Treasurer, stay out of the investment decisions.

And what I've told all of my appointees to the pension systems is that they will never get a call from me asking me or from me asking them to do something for a political purpose or, you know, some other investing priority.

I said, all I want for you to do as my appoint to the pension system is to make sure that their pension is there for when people retire Right.

You are an investment authority.

And by the way, we've appointed some phenomenal people to these boards that very qualified in investments and understand private equity and asset management and their fiduciary responsibilities.

I said the only job that you have to do is to protect that pension of the pension or to make sure those assets are there when they retire.

And I know that every one of my appointees is doing a good job of that, and they're fulfilling their role.

And speaking on that general idea of investment strategies, you've spoken out against what you call radical ESG focused investment strategies.

You're talking about environmental, social and governance projects that their supporters say encourage companies to act responsibly.

But there's also BDS, divestment, I'm sorry, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, which are designed to pressure Israel into ending what the supporters of BDS policy say is an occupation of Palestine.

I'm wondering if you're into those statements about those specific policies.

Are you potentially influencing what kind of investments the state gets into?

Are you turning away potential financial tools?

That could be good for the state?

Let me first of all say that when I say those things that we have prohibited ESG in the investment of the state treasurers portfolio, not the pension funds because.

Right.

I don't have control over them.

We just went through that.

But yes, we've made sure that the assets of the people of the state of Ohio and the treasures office will never be invested with ESG criteria.

And here's the reason for that, because if you want to take a political stand and that's what these things are, you're either you're taking a political stand on the environment, you're taking a political stand on a social issue, or you're taking a political stand on a governance issue, you want to take a political stand.

You don't do it with taxpayer money.

All right.

Because with taxpayer money, we've always invested and we will continue to invest only based on three criteria not environmental, social and governance.

It's going to be a return, a principal rate of return and liquidity needs of the people of the state of Ohio.

And for us to fulfill our financial obligations for the state that served us well in the past.

And that's the only criteria that I'm willing to invest on.

So by taking a stand against ESG focused strategies or the BDS situation, you're not taking an ideological stand?

Not at all.

I mean, what we're saying is that we have a fiduciary responsibility in the treasurer's office to make sure that the return of the capital is there for the people of the state of Ohio and that they get the highest return out there that's available.

It is not my job to take the state's $28 billion portfolio and enact my political priorities for political gain.

I just don't look at, I don't view my job that way.

And let me tell you about this, this anti-BDS movement, right.

What that ultimately is about is it's about trying to choke off capital to the state of Israel.

And it's being done by people.

And I think that this is a better term for it than antisemitism.

It's being done by people that hate Jews and it's wrong In our office, we invest in Israel bonds, we invest in Israel bonds because it's good for our portfolio.

They have a great liquidity premium to them.

We're able to invest out long term.

It helps with the duration of our portfolio and all these economic reasons.

And we're not going to divest them based upon some pressure from people overseas.

Or domestically for some social agenda.

So I reject that.

I think it's bad public policy and it's not what our government should be doing.

You've tweeted some criticisms of President Biden for a student loan forgiveness plan and also about inflation.

And I'm wondering, is inflation something the state treasurer can do anything about?

What are your plans to fight inflation?

Right.

Well, I'll tell you what, it's interesting.

I think, first of all, we need to talk about why is inflation here in the United States?

Why is it here worldwide?

And one of the reasons is because of the policies that people in Democrats have chosen in Washington, D.C.

They've chosen an energy policy that's tried to destroy domestic energy production in the United States that caused the price of our energy to go up.

And the second thing is, they printed an enormous amount of money over the last three years for all the social programs that they funded, including the student loan forgiveness.

And when you spend money that you don't have as a government you print it.

And when you print more money, the value of the money goes down.

And so it's just that simple.

That's why we have this massive runaway inflation.

And and I will also say that as I talked to people around the state of Ohio and we began talking with people a year ago about this inflation, and it hurts everybody.

It hurts families, it hurts small businesses.

And one of the small businesses that it really hurts in Ohio are our farmers.

And I remember having a conversation up in Wood County almost a year ago now, and the farmer said, yeah, he said the cost of Roundup for me has gone from $11 a gallon to $74 a gallon from 11 to 74.

And so the same is true of the cost of nitrogen and nitrogen is almost tripled.

The cost of diesel obviously has doubled.

And so the cost of the harvest now cost twice as much.

And so one of the things that we can do in the State Treasurer's office, even though I can't solve the big problem of inflation, we can at least enact some innovative programs to use our balance sheet to help farmers fight back against inflation through our modified EGG-LAYING program.

And we've kind of reconfigured this tool to make it an inflation fighting tool.

We've expanded the loan cap to half a million dollars, which is going to be incredibly helpful for farmers, so that even though the cost of all their inputs are going up over the next year, hopefully the cost of their loans and the interest rate on their loans that they're going to pay is actually going to go down as a part of our balance sheet.

We're able to leverage our balance sheet to help them lower their interest rate anywhere from a half percent up to 3%.

So that's one way that we can help fight back in inflation here in the state of Ohio.

The issue of abortion may not seem to have any connection to the state treasurer's office, but it's certainly a campaign issue for Democrats anyway.

In my interview with your opponent, Scott Scherzer, he said the issue of choice is the thing he's most asked about when he's out campaigning.

What are your thoughts?

It does.

This issue have anything to do with the Treasurer's office?

Well, I think, you know, in general as a society we've got to change the conversation from having abortions to how do we help the children that are already born.

And one of the things that we've done on that front in the State Treasurer's office is last November we launched a brand new program called Family Forward and it's actually helping families with the cost of adoption here in the state of Ohio.

We had somebody come to us and say, Hey, look, I would have two children.

The cost of adopting a child for us was between 40 to $50,000 a child, which I thought was just crazy.

I don't know how people are able to afford that.

And I said, Well, what about the state tax credit?

What about the federal tax credit?

He's like, What is that?

That might come through in two years, but I had to pay out of my pocket for the lawyer.

I had to pay out of my pocket for the home visit, for the adoption agency expenses, all these other things.

So we created a new program that if you get a loan to adopt a child in the state of Ohio, we're going to help lower the interest rate to get you through to that state and federal tax credit.

So we're very excited about that program called Family Forward And finally, the five statewide executive office holders who are all Republicans have all been endorsed by former President Trump with his endorsement of Governor Mike DeWine this week.

I'm asking all of you with no evidence to support Trump's claims of a stolen election.

Do you affirm the results of the 2020 vote and the Joe Biden did indeed win?

I do confirm that Joe Biden did win but I think that there are a lot of election irregularities that need to be looked at.

Frankly, if you have any question about an election.

Right, that is really a question about the foundations and the legitimacy of our republic.

And in my mind, nothing is more important than preserving our republic.

And I think everybody, whether you're a Democrat or Republican, you need to be concerned about election integrity.

And the people don't vote unless, first of all, they have a valid ballot.

And secondly, that people aren't allowed to vote for multiple people.

All right.

And we've got to enforce the election laws in the United States.

So I think I think that's a big issue for our republic, whether you're Democrat or Republican.

Everybody should want to see and have fair elections in the United States.

Next week, our Conversation with the Candidates series continues with the contenders for state auditor Republican incumbent Keith Faber and Democratic challenger Taylor SAP ington.

Early voting starts October 12th.

That's it for this week.

My colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television, thanks for watching.

Please check out our Web site at State News dot org and follow us on the show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from Medical Mutual providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at med mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Right is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

More at Porter right dot com and from the Ohio Education Association representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at OHEA.org.