One of the most important and far-reaching roles of this office is signing the state’s checkbook. The state treasurer’s signature is on millions of checks every year that are disbursed by the state of Wisconsin. Medicaid payments, state employee paychecks, tax refund checks and more all bear the endorsement of the treasurer.

Recently, this office hasn’t taken any role in monitoring the use of that signature and has instead trusted other agencies to distribute and use this signature without oversight by the treasurer. Like any Wisconsinite, I would never sign a blank check from my personal checkbook, and I will not do that with the people’s checkbook either. That’s why we already met with the incoming Department of Administration secretary, and I look forward to tackling these issues together.

We’ve seen multiple incidents of financial mismanagement recently. Here are two from last year alone: $600,000 was overpaid in Medicaid and more than $400,000 was double paid to a contractor working with the Department of Transportation. We must be able to trust that our tax dollars are used carefully, and I will ensure that we use the power of this office to develop guardrails around the use of our state’s checkbook and begin to improve fraud and counterfeit prevention procedures.

The treasurer’s office can do so much more to protect our tax dollars and provide greater transparency and accountability. I’m excited to work alongside Gov.-elect Tony Evers and the Legislature to fill the role that lawmakers set out for this office since the founding of our state in 1848. We have the opportunity to create a new legacy of good government for our state. And as your new state treasurer, I promise to get to work on day one.

Godlewski is state treasurer-elect of Wisconsin: www.sarahforwisconsin.com and @SarahforWI.