State treasurer reports PTIF growth, flags HB 10 costs for gold holdings and outlines unclaimed property workload

State Treasurer Marlo Oakes briefed the committee on treasury functions, investment results and management challenges, saying the Public Treasurers Investment Fund (PTIF) stands at about $37.5 billion and generated substantial earnings that benefit state and local entities. Oakes said the state generated roughly $191.9 million for the general fund in FY2025 from investment activity.

Oakes requested an ongoing appropriation (funded from PTIF management resources, not general fund) of about $1.2 million to hire outside investment expertise and provide redundancy and deeper credit research to help manage risk. She also described a structural challenge created by HB 10 (2025), which authorized purchases of physical precious metals and changed how investment expenses are handled; vaulting and insurance costs for physical metal holdings vary with market value, leaving the treasurer uncertain about out-year costs and recommending statutory adjustments to allow netting or other means to cover those expenses without returning to the Legislature each year.

Dennis Johnston, Unclaimed Property administrator, reported record receipt levels (704,000 properties reported last year) and said claim-payment capacity is being outpaced by new receipts. He said a 3-year analysis found about 14.2% of online claim filers were known bad actors and outlined fraud-mitigation and service improvements: adoption of electronic payment options (ACH, PayPal, Venmo), automated identity verification integrated with claims systems, improved phone escalation to supervisors and a request to use the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund to modernize systems and increase staffing to process valid claims faster.

Treasury staff invited committee members to follow up on fund-management questions and offered to provide more detailed revenue and risk modeling.