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State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, in an undated provided photo, a candidate for Oregon’s next state treasurer. Steiner is a family physician and professor at Oregon Health & Science University, and has served in the Legislature for 12 years, eventually rising to the role of a lead budget writer.
Courtesy of the campaign
State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, appears to be on track to become Oregon’s next state treasurer — the first time in state history a woman has been elected to the position.
Steiner, a family physician who has spent a dozen years in the Oregon Senate, was leading her opponent, state Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Tillamook, in returns Wednesday morning.
Steiner told OPB that spending time in rural parts of the state made a difference in her campaign.
“People understand that I really get that different Oregonians are in different places — that many Oregonians are still struggling financially,” Steiner said. “They resonated with my message of helping more Oregonians achieve financial security for themselves and their families.”
The state treasurer’s main task is overseeing the treasury, essentially, Oregon’s system of bank accounts. Income from taxes, fees and investments goes into the treasury, and money to pay for state services goes out. It includes the state’s nearly $100 billion Public Employees Retirement System fund, known as PERS.
While the treasurer does not make the laws related to PERS, during the campaign both Steiner and Boquist highlighted the treasurer’s role in protecting and growing the account.
The system is responsible for the pensions of more than 400,000 Oregonians. Right now PERS has an unfunded liability — meaning the difference between benefits promised and the money set aside for them — of more than $25 billion.
“The treasurer’s role in ensuring that the pension system is well funded is critical to the wellbeing of the state for a whole host of reasons,” Steiner told OPB in a September interview, “not least of which is that, when the unfunded liability goes up, then the amount that public employers have to pay in on an ongoing basis goes up. And that’s less money for teachers in the schools, troopers on the roads, firefighters, all the things that Oregonians depend on to stay healthy and safe and be well-educated.”
Additionally, the state’s constitution directs the treasurer to serve on the State Land Board alongside the secretary of state and governor. The treasurer is also third in line to the governorship after the secretary of state.
Before serving in the state legislature, Steiner had an established career as a family doctor. She was appointed to the Oregon Senate in 2011 to represent parts of Multnomah and Washington counties. She took over as co-chair of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means in 2018, making Steiner one of the legislature’s top budget writers.
Boquist hails from a dairy farm in Tillamook and spent time in the U.S. Army as a special forces lieutenant colonel before being elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 2004. Four years later, he won a seat in the state senate to represent parts of Yamhill and Polk counties.
Boquist’s name has been in the headlines in recent years due to his participation in legislative walkouts. Two years ago, Oregon voters passed a measure barring lawmakers with excessive unexcused absences from running for reelection. Boquist helped stage multiple walkouts in 2023 after the law passed, which disqualified him from running for reelection to the senate.
Outgoing Treasurer Tobias Read held the position for the last eight years and was prevented from running for the office again this cycle due to term limits. Steiner will take over plans to halt investing the state’s money in fossil fuels by the year 2050. Read — who is currently in the lead to be the next Oregon secretary of state — already started the move to make the state’s investment portfolio carbon-neutral over the next two and half decades.
Steiner will also take over the Oregon Saves program, which helps Oregonians put away money for higher education, retirement, or other life goals. Steiner hopes to increase the state’s programs and public education related to saving during her time as treasurer.
“We need to do a much better job of understanding what the barriers are to getting people enrolled in Oregon Save,” Steiner said in September. “We need to do a much better job of educating those who are enrolled about the benefit of increasing their contribution. And because what we need to do fundamentally is push out more and more financial literacy education in a whole variety of ways.”
Steiner credited Read and his team with helping to create a transition plan for her to take over the role in the new year.
“Assuming I win, I plan to spend a couple of days at Treasury later this week to work with the team there and make sure that we lay out a very careful transition plan so that we’re all fully up to speed by the time January 1st rolls around,” Steiner said, “and we can hit the ground running.”