Treasurer Russ reports record returns, moves to modernize legacy systems and accelerate unclaimed-property processing

Treasurer Todd Russ briefed the committee on Treasury accomplishments, ongoing modernization efforts and the agency’s stewardship of unclaimed property and debt management.

Russ said the Treasury returned a record $376,000,000 to the state’s General Revenue Fund from investment income in the most recent year. He also described an IT modernization effort to replace a decades-old legacy accounting and banking system: the office signed a fixed-price conversion contract for about $12,000,000 and met its initial project benchmark, he said. "I put $376,000,000 back into the General Revenue Fund for the State of Oklahoma out of the Treasury portfolio, this last year," Russ told the committee.

Russ reviewed the unclaimed-property operation, noting that the Treasury holds roughly $1.36 billion in liquid unclaimed-property balances and pays out $30–50 million annually in claims. He said the office is implementing new vendor software and controls that the Treasury expects to speed claims processing and increase recoveries for rightful owners. The treasurer also reported gains from securities-lending programs and new arrangements that improved returns — for example, securities-lending revenue rose from about $350,000 in one prior year to roughly $7,000,000 in the following year after a change in providers.

Russ described the Legacy Capital Fund (LCF), a legislative vehicle for funding capital projects without issuing bonds, and said the fund now holds about $777,000,000 in deployed or available capital and has earned roughly $27,000,000 in investment income. He said his office intends the LCF to be a practical alternative to bond-funded projects where appropriate.

On the Treasury’s legacy IT program, Russ said the contract was negotiated after a lengthy procurement process and that the office expects to complete conversion phases by 2026. He said the system supports all state agency banking and cash-management functions and that modernizing it will improve security, disaster recovery and operations.

Russ said he will not ask for additional core appropriations in his office’s core budget this cycle, and emphasized that much of the Treasury’s operating funding comes from fee-based and revolving accounts rather than direct appropriations.

Ending: Russ told lawmakers the agency will continue to pursue IT modernization and unclaimed-property improvements and to look for opportunities to return investment earnings to state coffers while preserving liquidity for agencies.