What experience (personal, professional, fiscal, other) would you bring to your role as Treasurer that will benefit our state? What is your vision for being our State's Treasurer?

My professional experience includes nearly 30 years of experience in Real Estate as a Certified General Commercial Real Estate Appraiser. My political/elected experience includes 3 years on Canon City Council, 6 years as Fremont County Commissioner, and 8 years in the Colorado Senate. In the Senate I served on the Finance Committee, the Appropriations Committee, the Joint Budget Committee and for 2 years as the State Senate President. My vision for the office will be to maximize taxpayer dollars and be a vocal advocate for Colorado families struggling through the affordability crisis. The Treasurer should be a fiscally responsible steward of the people’s money.

Colorado's voters have enacted measures such as the Sunshine Law and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) to promote accountability. How would you ensure the Treasurer's office upholds the highest standards of ethics, transparency, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds?

As the Chief Investment Officer the Treasurer should be as transparent and as conservative as possible with the funds entrusted to the office. Periodic reports will continue to be published that account for how the state’s investment portfolio is performing. Likewise, as the trustee for the unclaimed property trust fund the Treasurer’s office should be diligent in returning that money to its rightful owners and not allow it to be used by the legislature for “budget balancing”.

How would you approach managing Colorado's investments and financial reserves during periods of economic uncertainty, inflation, or recession, and what safeguards would you prioritize to protect taxpayers?

The state’s investment portfolio has been entrusted to the Treasurer’s office to be invested in a safe, liquid and beneficial manner. This has for the most part been the general investment strategy of each Colorado Treasurer and must continue to be so. During uncertain times this is exactly the kind of conservative strategy that has ensured the protections necessary for our taxpayer’s dollars.

How would you work with the Governor, legislature, and local governments to ensure sound financial coordination and long-term fiscal stability across Colorado?

As Treasurer I would work with the Executive and Legislative branches as much as possible for the benefit of the citizens of Colorado. But I would also be a vocal advocate against such policy proposals and budget proposals that jeopardize taxpayer money such as Unclaimed Property Trust Fund raids to balance the budget. The Treasurer has the ability to implement conservative investment strategies but also has a significant platform to address bad policy and budget decisions made by the governor and legislature.

What financial metrics or performance benchmarks would you use to evaluate the effectiveness of the Treasury's investment strategies and programs, and how would you communicate those results to the public?

Investment portfolio performance would be evaluated with comparative historical performance as well as comparative performance against other similar funds nationally. Adjustments to the state’s portfolio would be made as necessary in accordance with those evaluations. But in every situation it would stay within the bounds of what is safe, liquid, and beneficial for the Colorado taxpayer. Results of our investments will continue to be reported to the people in an annual report.

What role, if any, should the State Treasurer play in promoting financial literacy and helping Coloradans better understand personal finance, retirement planning, and unclaimed property programs?

The Treasurer has a vital role and platform to perform in educating the public about each of these and should first and foremost lead by example with the public dollars entrusted to them.

Do you believe that Colorado's State Treasury Pool investments are currently made in the most prudent way possible, and if not, what would you change?

Historically, the state’s T-Pool has been invested very conservatively with the 3-fold strategy noted above. That goal should remain the same. The aim would still be to maximize taxpayer investments in a safe and reliable manner. In contrast, my opponent has admitted he wants to minimize the taxpayers’ rate of return on their investment for fear of hitting the TABOR cap and being forced to return their money back to them.

As Treasurer, how will you improve the funding of the Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) retirement fund?

First, we continue the implementation of SB18-200 which reformed PERA and set it back on the path for solvency. I was instrumental in the development of that legislation when I was Senate President. This legislation has vastly improved the funding for our state retiree’s pension. Also, we should stop paying exorbitant bonuses to those state workers who are investing this fund on the state’s behalf. As we’ve learned, these are some of the highest paid state employees who get the benefit of state retirement that we know we can’t afford. We either contract with private employers with negotiated returns and fees or we get the best and brightest under the state system.

How do you believe that Colorado's debt policy and debt management can be improved?

Fortunately, TABOR puts great constraints on how government takes on debt and subsequently, Colorado is considered a low-debt state. General obligation bonds still require a vote of the people and are backed by the taxing authority taking on the debt. Certificates of Participation are a lease-financing structure that side-steps TABOR to acquire assets over the lease term without creating general obligation debt.

Colorado's Unclaimed Property Division oversees billions of dollars' worth of Coloradans' unclaimed property. What changes would you make as Treasurer to ensure that more of this property is returned to its rightful owners every year than is taken in?

We need to protect the money that belongs to Coloradans and work hard to get it back to the rightful wallets. It’s been a theme of the single-party rule at the capitol that they deserve those dollars more than you do. That’s essentially an additional tax on people that isn’t fair and I don’t believe it’s legal. Also, I’ll work with the Secretary of State of State to find voters who are owed dollars in the unclaimed property and find ways to return those dollars. If those folks have moved, we should make sure they’re no longer registered to vote here.

How can the Treasury do a better job at both financial transparency and preventing the fraudulent use of public funds? Would you support the creation of a Colorado Department of Government Efficiency? If so, how? If not, why?

Every month we see a new headline flagging wasteful spending to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Medicaid spending will soon engulf an even larger amount of our state’s budget and still without vetting the people who are taking advantage of the system. I’ll put taxpayers first to be a good steward of your family’s hard-earned dollars. I’ll work closely with our state auditor to make sure recommendations are being enforced and those savings realized. An independent agency could be tasked with birddogging waste but not if it is simply another bureaucratic fox guarding the henhouse. Our legislature, and more specifically, the Joint Budget Committee, should be our watchdogs for this but have failed in this task.

What experience (personal, professional, fiscal, other) would you bring to your role as Treasurer that will benefit our state? What is your vision for being our State's Treasurer?

My approach comes from years spent [outside government] running a small business, and watching firsthand how every dollar taken in taxes or fees has an opportunity cost for a family or an entrepreneur. That experience taught me that budgets are moral documents: every line item represents money that was earned by someone and then redirected by force of law. After studying municipal and state finance, what strikes me most is how rarely government treats the public's money with the same discipline as a household or small business. I believe the Treasurer's office should be run by someone who sees themselves as a fiduciary for taxpayers first — not an extension of whatever spending priorities the legislature wants funded that year.

Colorado's voters have enacted measures such as the Sunshine Law and the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) to promote accountability. How would you ensure the Treasurer's office upholds the highest standards of ethics, transparency, and responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds?

I'd exceed TABOR's minimums voluntarily: real-time online checkbook-level spending data, published investment holdings, and open audits by independent third parties, not just internal review. Sunshine Law compliance is a floor, not a ceiling. Every taxpayer dollar's journey should be traceable by any citizen without a records request. I'd also refuse the revolving-door practices that let financial firms doing state business also fund political campaigns.

How would you approach managing Colorado's investments and financial reserves during periods of economic uncertainty, inflation, or recession, and what safeguards would you prioritize to protect taxpayers?

Prioritize liquidity and capital preservation over chasing yield. Colorado's reserves shouldn't be used to prop up state spending or bail out mismanaged programs. I'd favor short-duration, high-quality instruments, stress-test the portfolio against inflation and recession scenarios, and resist pressure to fund reserves through new debt or gimmicks. The goal is protecting purchasing power for taxpayers, not maximizing returns through risk that ultimately falls on the public if it fails.

How would you work with the Governor, legislature, and local governments to ensure sound financial coordination and long-term fiscal stability across Colorado?

I'd coordinate through transparency, not control — sharing accurate revenue and reserve projections so the Governor and legislature can't hide behind rosy forecasts to justify overspending. With local governments, I'd advocate consistent accounting standards so debt and liabilities are apparent statewide. My role isn't to negotiate spending priorities but to ensure everyone works from honest numbers, and to publicly flag unsustainable fiscal paths regardless of which party proposes them.

What financial metrics or performance benchmarks would you use to evaluate the effectiveness of the Treasury's investment strategies and programs, and how would you communicate those results to the public?

Risk-adjusted returns benchmarked against comparable state pools, cost-per-dollar-managed versus peer states, and liquidity coverage ratios during stress periods. I'd also track how much is paid in management fees relative to passive alternatives — a chronically underappreciated cost to taxpayers. Results would be published in plain-language quarterly reports, not just technical filings, with historical comparisons so citizens can judge performance over time rather than trusting political spin.

What role, if any, should the State Treasurer play in promoting financial literacy and helping Coloradans better understand personal finance, retirement planning, and unclaimed property programs?

Financial literacy is valuable, but it's not government's core job to teach personal responsibility — private organizations, schools, and families do that better. The Treasurer's legitimate role is narrower: making unclaimed property easy to search and reclaim, and being transparent about how PERA and state investments work so citizens can make informed decisions. I'd focus resources there rather than building a broad literacy bureaucracy that duplicates existing private and nonprofit efforts.

Do you believe that Colorado's State Treasury Pool investments are currently made in the most prudent way possible, and if not, what would you change?

Likely not fully prudent — public pools often carry political pressure to invest in favored industries or "impact" categories rather than pure risk-adjusted return. I'd audit current holdings for any politically motivated allocations (ESG mandates, home-state favoritism) and strip those out in favor of low-cost, diversified, boring investments. Prudence means protecting principal and predictable returns, not using taxpayer capital to signal values or pick winners.

As Treasurer, how will you improve the funding of the Public Employees' Retirement Association (PERA) retirement fund?

PERA's core problem is a defined-benefit structure exposed to demographic and market risk that taxpayers ultimately backstop. I'd push to close that plan to new hires in favor of defined-contribution options, giving employees ownership and portability while capping future taxpayer liability. For current liabilities, I'd insist on honest, conservative actuarial assumptions rather than optimistic return projections that mask the true funding gap.

How do you believe that Colorado's debt policy and debt management can be improved?

Colorado should borrow less, not manage debt better on the margins. I'd require any new bonding to go before voters under TABOR rather than through creative workarounds like certificates of participation. I'd also push for clearer public disclosure of total state and local debt obligations, including pension liabilities, so voters see the full picture before authorizing more borrowing.

Colorado's Unclaimed Property Division oversees billions of dollars' worth of Coloradans' unclaimed property. What changes would you make as Treasurer to ensure that more of this property is returned to its rightful owners every year than is taken in?

I'd shorten the holding period before property is flagged unclaimed, invest in proactive owner-matching using existing state databases (with privacy safeguards) instead of waiting for claims, and simplify the online claims process. I'd also push to end any practice where the state benefits financially from delayed claims. The default bias should be returning property fast, not treating it as float for state use.

How can the Treasury do a better job at both financial transparency and preventing the fraudulent use of public funds? Would you support the creation of a Colorado Department of Government Efficiency? If so, how? If not, why?

Real-time public spending data, independent audits, and criminal referral—not just internal correction—for fraud found in public funds. On a "Department of Government Efficiency": I'd support the function, not necessarily a new bureaucracy to perform it. Colorado already has an Office of the State Auditor; I'd rather empower and fund independent auditors with teeth than create another agency that could itself become politicized or duplicative.