Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner: 'Oregon doing well financially'
Elizabeth Steiner stopped by Eye on Northwest Politics for a conversation with host Ken Boddie. Watch the video for the full report.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- A physician by trade and an adjunct professor at OHSU, Elizabeth Steiner has been in the Oregon legislature since 2012. She is the first woman to be state treasurer who said Oregon is "a very diverse state" that helps to provide the variety of perspectives necessary to run the government well.
"In most households, it's the women who run the family budget," she said, adding she ran her family's budget as well as the state budget as a member of the budget committee. "I have a perspective that many people don't. … I think I bring a new perspective to serve Oregonians in a different way."
Steiner said the good news for Oregon is that "we're doing well financially. The challenge is … on the budget side, expenses often outstrip the increases in revenue."
One of the biggest investments the state treasury manages is the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund, the fund that provides benefits for longtime state employees. "That's in reasonable shape," she said. "It could always be in better shape because the better funded our pension system is the less money current employers have to pay in, and the more money to put teachers in classrooms or firefighters in the station to serve people across our state."
Her goal is to improve Oregon's investments and grow the pension fund to better serve residents rather than just pay down the pension debt.
The state is looking at "moving away from carbon-intensive investments and more toward clean energy investments because that's the smart thing to do."
"We don't think fossil fuels will be a good investment for the state in the relatively near future," Steiner said.
She said she has a good team and works closely with the Oregon Investment Council to do things in a thoughtful, deliberate way.
"One of the most exciting pieces we do at Treasury," she said, is helping families by making sure the 529 fund is working well and able to fund any type of post-high school education -- college or trade school. "That's a path toward longtime economic security."
Oregon Saves is a similar fund for seniors, since "Social Security isn't enough by itself." The fund helps people save for their retirement especially for those whose employers don't.
She was very complimentary of former Treasurer Tobias Read, who is now the new Oregon attorney general.