Assembly Passes State Treasurer Resolution

The State Assembly voted 63-33 this afternoon to approve Assembly Joint Resolution 5, which deletes the state treasurer from the state constitution and replaces the treasurer with the lieutenant governor on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands.

Representative Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), the bill’s author, was the only representative to speak during the floor debate. Schraa said that it is the responsibility of elected officials to be “good stewards of hard-earned tax dollars” and to evaluate policies to see if they match the intent of previous legislatures. Schraa argued for the deletion of the state treasurer’s office due to the fact that many of the duties previously assigned to the state treasurer’s office have been moved to other agencies.  He cited the fact that the Wisconsin State Legislature has voted 196 times to amend the state constitution as justification for amending the constitution to delete the state treasurer’s office.

“It’s time to allow the electorate to voice their opinion on this matter,” said Schraa.

No other Representatives spoke before voting on AJR5. 

All that is needed for AJR5/SJR4 to pass the Legislature this session is for the full Senate to vote on the proposal. Since AJR5/AJR4 would amend the constitution, if the Legislature passes AJR5/SJR4 this session, they must pass an identical resolution next session. Once the proposal has been approved by the Legislature a second time, it will be voted on in a statewide referendum.