On Nov. 3rd, voters will select the next chief financial officer for New Mexico. The State Treasurer directly manages around $20 billion in public funds, and the role is increasingly important as revenues and investments have grown. Incumbent Laura Montoya, a Democrat, is seeking a second term and she told KUNM the growth in New Mexico’s revenues and investments are why the office needs more resources when she was asked about her accomplishments over her first term.
LAURA MONTOYA: Making $1 out of 15 cents. It's having 28 staff managing now $24 billion. When I started, we were at 14 billion. To put that in perspective, 25 years ago, when the office only managed 5 billion and I was an administrative assistant, there were 33 staff. We really need to focus on getting resources from the legislature so that we can keep up with the demand. We're making about $2 million a day off of the money that is safeguarded within the treasury, and that allows legislators to have the opportunity to utilize those resources in ways that can go back to our communities.
KUNM: Your opponent did criticize what he sees as a delay in some core performance requirements in your office, and I think, namely, that was delivering an investment performance report to lawmakers before they go into the legislative session. How would you respond to that?
MONTOYA: We go before interim committees during the Legislature, and then during the legislative session, we also have to go to House Appropriations to present our budget and what's been going on in the office, as well as our Senate Finance Committee. They are the ones that invite us and tell us when we're going to go. We have an annual report that we also give out. We publicize it. We give it to the library so that you can see what's going on. But every single month we have a State Treasurer's Investment Council meeting that I chair, it's public. You can see what the numbers look like. You can see direct assets that we've purchased for every single pool, and it's a very transparent process.
KUNM: What new initiatives or changes would you make to the treasurer's office if you're reelected?
MONTOYA: So we've been doing a lot of changes, and we're not done yet. So we have our New Mexico STABLE Program, which is the State Treasurer's Achieving a Better Life Experience. We've grown that program significantly. It helps people with disabilities. We worked with our legislature, and we got a bill passed. And what it is, is it allows you to have an account, and it allows for people to live with dignity. If they need the money, they can utilize it. If they don't, they won't lose their Social Security Disability. We've expanded that program and are working with Children, Youth, and Families Department for our foster kids that have disabilities, for our children who have lost their parents who have disabilities, and so we're really proud of the partnerships and the growth. But we still have a lot more people to impact with that program.
The second program that we've been working on is financial education, cultivating a new wave of financial leaders. We're partnering with University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University with our professors at both schools. And what we've learned is that our out-migration numbers are very high. They're higher than the national average. We want our New Mexico talent to stay in New Mexico and manage our money, make good returns, and at the same time make positive impacts that our teachers in the Educational Retirement Board will be proud of, as well as our state employees, including firefighters and police officers, will be proud of us for what we've invested in. And that they can be assured that they're going to get their money when they are retired and live with dignity.
KUNM: Am I right that you doing this kind of education programs because we need more financial professionals going into public service.
MONTOYA: We absolutely do. I mean, we just finished talking about $60 billion. We don't have the skill set of a lot of people within the financial realm for to be managing auditing responsibilities, budget responsibilities, investment responsibilities. There's so much growth, and I would really love our young people to be able to meet that that need. The other component that we're working on for this next legislative session is going to be baby bonds. It’s $7,000 for every baby born in our state to be able to have. It'll grow over time with the State Investment Council in a pool, and they'll have access to it after they have a financial literacy course that's approved by the Treasurer's office, and that it'll be for entrepreneurship in New Mexico, home ownership in New Mexico, or education, whatever college free doesn't pay for.
KUNM: Policy initiatives like this have to come from the Legislature. You've also been involved in press briefings with other state treasurers, looking at the impact of federal policies on states. Why do you see these advocacy roles as the proper realm of the State Treasurer?
MONTOYA: I believe when you swear an oath as a public servant to serve your people, you have to be able to do things that make a meaningful change in people's everyday lives. I can manage your money, but what does it matter if we're the second largest sovereign wealth fund if people can't even afford to get to work, or they can't afford the prescription drugs, and they're deciding now in the winter months whether or not to turn up the heat because it's cold, because their elderly bones are hurting, or maybe buy their grandchildren some Christmas presents. We need to start equipping our people, making sure we can keep New Mexicans in New Mexico, and have them managing our funds in a respectful and appropriate fiduciary and prudent way, so that we can continue to grow New Mexico in the way that I envision
