University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. October 31. 1990
5b
State Treasurer
Thompson says expertise vital
By David Roach
Kansan staff writer
Kansas needs a treasurer with experience in finance to help steer the state through the current period of economic turmoil, said Sally Thompson, candidate for state treasurer.
Thompson is a certified public accountant and has worked in the financial industry for the past 15 years.
"This is the first time Kansas has an opportunity to elect someone with a strong financial background," she said.
She said she would work to strengthen and expand the office of treasurer and to increase the products and services of that office.
She said she would work to develop a long-term plan to examine state debt as bonds were sold to finance the highway program.
"Kansas will move from one of the lowest to one of the highest bonded debts per capita in the next few years," she said. "I would analyze how deeply the state will be in debt to determine how much future resources should be used to pay back debt that the state is already committed to."
Thompson said she also would expand the role the treasurer played in revenue projections, both for her own office and for the Legislature.
formulates revenue projections for the state.
Jane Rodolph/KANSAN
The revenue consensus committee
Thompson also said that she would push for monthly reporting by the treasurer's office to the Legislature and have it tracked by market makers with non-partisan information.
The treasurer needs a strong fini-
cal background to know which num-
bers are relevant and how to present
in a meaningful fashion, she said.
"There is a big potential for politics in reporting the financial condition of the state and for giving financial advice," she said. "A treasurer with my background could be a chief financial adviser for the state."
Thompson said that she would invest the state's inactive money in Kansas banks to stimulate the state's economy and that she would make sure those banks were reinvesting that money in Kansas.
"I have worked at a high level in my profession for 15 years," she said. "It's a chance for me to take a strong leadership role in the state. It was just a matter of timing, when the event occurs between the private and public sectors."
Thompson said Kansan had a clear choice between herself, with a strong financial background, and her opponent, a professional politician.
Her Republican opponent, Eric Rucker, is a Shawnee County commissioner. He has attacked Thompson throughout the campaign for her role as an administrator in Shawnee Federal Savings of Topeka.
Thompson said she was invited into the struggling S&L in 1985 to identify its problems and cure them, a task she said she accomplished.
Sally Thompson
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Sally Thompson (D)
Age: 50
Hometown: Spokane, Wash. Now resides in Tonoka.
Education: B.A. in finance and accounting from the University of Colorado.
Background: Moved to Kansas in 1985. Thompson is a Certified Public Accountant.
Rucker plans to expand role
By David Roach
Kansan staff writer
The state needs a manager with proven abilities to handle the challenges of the state treasurer's office, including the election of the candidate for state treasury.
"We have a billion-dollar portfolio on the state level," he said. "It would be unthinkable for the state of Kansas to begin turning over the investment policies of the state to anything but professionals."
Rucker said the state needed a good administrator to oversee those professional activities.
"I've been doing it at a county level with over a quarter of a billion dollars, and I've done it successfully," he said. "As a result of policy changes we've made, we've increased the dollars earned from interest by 145 percent in three years."
Rucker has been a Shawnee County commissioner since 1987. He also serves as the executive director of the department and as an administrative law hydro
Rucker said the state needed a person with experience in public service to manage the treasurer's office.
A treasurer should have a deep well of credibility with the Legislature. Rucker said.
"As a county commissioner, I've managed more than 700 public employees," he said. "There are only employees in the state treasurer's office."
"You have to be a public servant with a proven track record," he said. "I've been working with the Legislature for more than 10 years."
He said he would try to expand the influence of the treasurer's office into other areas of the government.
Rucker said the treasurer participated in the process of establishing rules and regulations for the investment of public funds.
The treasurer, who sits on the state's three-member, pooled-money investment board, should have authority to appoint one of the other
Eric Rucker
members, Rucker said. The governor now appoints the other two members.
The board invests the state's idle funds.
Rucker said that if the board made a bad decision, the treasurer usually was blamed.
"We need an elected officer in there to keep those boards responsible to the public," Rucker said. "I would be a spokesman for the public."
"If the treasurer is going to take the heat, he should have the authority on the board." Rucker said.
The treasurer also should sit on the board of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System and on the board of the issuing Authority Board, Rucker said.
Rucker said he would continue the
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Eric Rucker (R)
Age: 38
Hometown: Harrington
programs that the present treasurer, Joan Finney, had implemented. Finney is running for governor.
Education: B.A. from Kansas Wesleyan College, M.A. from Emporia State and a J.D. from Washburn.
Background: Captain in Kansas Army National Guard.
"Joan has done an inspired job, and we will continue those functions," he said.
He said he would continue to implement automation of the treasurer's office.
"They're light years ahead of where they were, but we will go in and do a complete review," he said.
...
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Shaving cream, eggs, water guns, and
S&L issue ignites treasurer race
She said no such entity as the Federal Home Loan Bank Administration existed, and she criticized
...
Thompson questioned the authenticity of the document.
Thompson was president of Shaw
Eric Rucker, Republican candidate for state treasurer, has circulated a document he said showed that the Shawnee Federal Savings and Loan collapsed under the supervision of Democratic opponent, Sally Thompson.
By David Roach
Candidates in the state treasurer race are trading barbs about a document that one contender implicates his opponent in a Topkea savings and loan's financial deterioration and eventual failure.
nee federal between 1985 and this year, when it was taken over by federal regulators and sold to Bank IV of Toekea.
Thompson said that the document was bogus and that it showed that Rucker either intentionally misre-presented the facts or that he did not understand the complicated world of finance.
Rucker has been criticizing Thompson's background in the S&L industry since early in the campaign
Kansan staff writer
Rucker circulated a document titled Federal Home Loan Bank Administration that showed decreases in Shawnee Federal's total assets, in its return on average assets and in its tangible capital ratio during the five years Thompson was president.
Thompson said she was invited onto the S&L's management team to help cure its financial woes, a job she said she had accomplished.
The document indicated that the information was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Rucker disagreed.
However, Thompson said there was no way to equate the tangible capital ratio with hard cash.
Rucker for not identifying the document as campaign material.
The document equates the tangible capital ratio with hard cash and indicates that Shawne Federal lost an亿 million during Thompson's presidency.
She said Rucker's information probably was gleaned from readily available documents that did not include Freedom of Information Act request.
"That would be like figuring out how much money you have in the
Rucker admitted the document was incorrectly titled, but he said all the information was accurate.
"Anybody can go down and get this information," he said.
However, Rucker would not identify the source of the information or who gave him the document.
bank by counting the checks in your checkbook," she said.
Thompson said the ratio was more like home equity.
Some of those investments lost as much as 75 percent of their value after the oil market collapsed in the mid-1980s, she said.
She said a homeowner could owe more on his home than it was worth and still have money in the bank to pay bills and buy groceries.
Thompson said the S&L's troubles stemmed from investments it made before she took over the institution, particularly in real-estate investments in Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado.
She said that her job was to identify Shawnee Federal's problem investments and minimize them. During her presidency she reduced operation costs by $180 million deposits from $130 million to $180 million and reduced interest costs.
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