When I was a Statehouse reporter three decades ago, the role of the state treasurer was pretty much what you'd expect: scoop up the tax money collected by the Department of Taxation and deposit it in "friendly" banks and investment houses. Unless an investment went scandalously sour, the office was a backwater in state government as far as the media and the public were concerned.
Although I consider myself well informed, I didn't anticipate that much had changed when I went down to Heath last night to hear our new State Treasurer, Kevin Boyce, address Licking County Democrats.
Not what I expected.
"We've got to invest in people, not in banks," said Boyce, who took office last January when former Treasurer Richard Cordray moved over to the Ohio Attorney General's Office. That's why Boyce is retooling his office, making it less of a counting house and more of a department of economic development.
Having been recently scolded by my daughter for hanging on to a houseful of old, energy inefficient appliances, I was especially interested in Boyce's newest innovation, called ECO-Link. To quote from his website:
"The Energy Conservation for Ohioans (ECO-Link) program is designed to provide reduced rate financing through partnering banks for Ohioans completing “whole home” weatherization and energy efficient improvements in their homes. ECO-Link provides the powerful lending resources needed to allow homeowners to enjoy a more comfortable home, realize the saving from energy efficient products, and develop Ohio as a leader in the developing green economy."
The details are at http://www.ohiotreasurer.org/ForYou/Default.aspx?Section=ECO
But basically, Boyce directs state deposits to those banks who agree to offer lower interest rates to those consumers borrowing money for home energy conservation projects.
Similar "linked deposit" programs have been started to encourage bank lending at reasonable rates to farmers and small business persons.
Currently, Boyce said his office has $600 million in state cash invested in various economic development programs. That, out of a total investment portfolio of more than $15 billion, is a good start but obviously there's more that could be done to make sure Ohio's bank account is working for the benefit of Ohioans - not just banks.
"Ohio needs leaders" to get the state out of its current economic doldrums, he said.
In Boyce, it looks like we've got one.
-- David Lore
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