Voters by a wide margin keep Wisconsin's 170-year-old state treasurer's office

It turns out Wisconsinites want to have a state treasurer, after all.

By a strong margin, 61% to 39%, voters Tuesday beat back a constitutional amendment and kept Wisconsin's 170-year-old treasurer's office.

"I'm flabbergasted that the results are as high as they are," said former GOP Treasurer Jack Voight, who led a coalition to keep the office. "I thought it would be a much closer vote than this."

With little spending on either side of the referendum and no known polling, it wasn't clear until Tuesday which side would prevail in the contest that culminated a years-long effort to abolish the office. Some voters may have been surprised just to find the question on their ballots.

"No governor, no politician or political party should be above our state constitution," Voight said.

The current treasurer, Republican Matt Adamczyk, led the charge to get rid of the office.

"The point of the constitutional amendment is to let the people decide," he said. "We seemingly will have a state treasurer and it will be up to future legislatures to decide what the state treasurer will do."

By keeping the office, voters gave candidates the opportunity to campaign for the position in the fall, though so far only one person has declared a run.

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The treasurer will now remain as one of three state officials sitting on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands, which manages about $1 billion in assets and 77,000 acres of state land to help benefit public education in the state. If the treasurer had been eliminated, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch would have taken over that seat on the board.

The treasurer is one of the original state officers created by the Wisconsin Constitution in 1848, along with the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The treasurer once played an important role in state finance but the office has gradually lost its duties to other agencies.

Two years ago, lawmakers removed one of the treasurer's last major responsibilities — running the state's unclaimed property program, leaving the office with just a single worker: Adamczyk.

GOP lawmakers voted in two consecutive sessions to eliminate the state treasurer, but because it's a constitutional change the measure needed to be approved by voters as well.

Republicans tended to favor eliminating the state treasurer, while Democrats were more skeptical of the idea. But even among GOP officials, there was disagreement on what to do.

Adamczyk, who is now running for the Assembly seat being vacated by Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), said the office and its $114,000 annual budget weren't needed and cutting both would provide savings for taxpayers. Adamczyk and his GOP predecessor, Kurt Schuller, both campaigned in 2014 and in 2010 on eliminating the position.

Adamczyk said it was tough to get the message out on the referendum.

"It's a question that unfortunately not enough people knew about," he said

Voight said the office should be preserved and expanded so its occupant can advocate for fiscal responsibility in the state budget.

During the campaign, Voight argued that eliminating the treasurer would leave Wisconsin as the only state without an elected treasurer, comptroller or auditor. Adamczyk responded that the state also has an elected governor and lawmakers and nonpartisan oversight from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau and Legislative Audit Bureau.

As of Monday, only one candidate, Republican Thomas Hiller of Madison, had registered to run for treasurer.