Editorial: Davidson has experience to lead state treasurer’s office
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, October 5, 2016
By The Herald Editorial Board
With the election of the next state treasurer, Washington’s Republican party will take control of an office that has been led by Democrats for 60 years.
Current state Treasurer James McIntyre, first elected to the office in 2008, declined to run for a third term. Three Democrats and two Republicans ran in the top-two primary for the post; the Democrats split the vote, leaving both Republicans as vote leaders.
Aside from assigning alliances during elections, however, partisan representation shouldn’t — and hasn’t — guided the office.
The treasurer acts as the state’s chief financial officer with responsibility for cash management of public funds, arranging short- and long-term investments and the sale of bonds to finance major public projects, a notable example being the transportation package passed in 2015 that outlined $16.1 billion in projects.
The treasurer also is the sole elected official on the State Investment Board, which manages $106.9 billion in state pension and other trust funds and sits on other boards, including the committee that overs the state’s prepaid tuition program, the Housing Finance Commission and the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.
The treasurer oversees an office of 65 employees with a budget in the current biennium of $16.7 million.
While the general election offers a choice of two Republicans, by both candidates own admission, the two differ in some ways more than do Democrats from Republicans.
Duane Davidson has served as treasurer for Benton County, which includes the cities of Kennewick and Richland, since 2003. He previously served as the chief financial officer for the Benton County auditor’s office. He also worked for the state auditor’s office. Davidson has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Central Washington University.
Michael Waite, a former Australian tennis pro and a naturalized citizen since 2015, currently is senior vice president of operations for Bentall Kennedy, a Seattle-based investment firm, managing $11.1 billion in assets. Previously, he served for four years with Cascade Investments, the private investment firm of Bill and Melinda Gates, with $70 billion in assets. He holds an MBA from Emory University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and management from Columbia State University.
Waite has not served in public office before, but sees his 15 years of experience in those corporate positions as a closer match in scale to the size and complexity of the state’s holdings and cash flow.
Davidson comes from a more traditional model for the office form his past government management experience.
Waite says he would seek a higher public profile for the office and would use that to bring reforms and push lawmakers to reduce the state’s $20 billion in debt, which requires the state pay $2 billion in debt service each year and ranks Washington as having the sixth-highest debt-per-person ratio in the nation. Waite’s charisma and public speaking skill would likely make him effective in that role.
For Davidson, the smaller scale of investments for Benton County is not as important as the procedures and standards he has applied in office. His office has received clean audits from the state. He launched a countywide investment pool that manages about $300 million for the county, its school and fire districts and other agencies. He earned certification for the county’s investment policy. His management has resulted in an upgrade of the county’s bond rating. And as president of the state Association of County Treasurers, Davidson has worked collaboratively with Republican and Democratic treasurers, winning the endorsements of all but one, who remained neutral.
The state treasurer does have a responsibility for informing and educating the public about the state’s financial position and the steps necessary for its financial health.
McIntyre took political heat for pitching a state tax reform package that included an income tax, but he understood his duty to explain to the public his concerns about the state’s regressive tax system, the increasing cost to finance secondary education and the amount of debt the state now holds. (For the record, both Davidson and Waite are opposed to a state income tax.)
Whoever wins the office should help lead a discussion about the state’s finances. Such a responsibility does not require taking sides in a policy debate, but the treasurer can help inform that debate.
Waite recently told the Associated Press that he wanted to contribute to that discussion but did not intend to give up a successful career in the private sector to become an administrator. But the job requires just that, a practiced administrator. Davidson ably meets that requirement.
