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Treasury and Comptroller brief committee: $20B debt, $45B cash management and record unclaimed property returns
Summary
Treasury and Comptroller officials described central accounting, debt and cash management, insurance and claims work, and said the Commonwealth reunited about $118 million with rightful owners last year while collecting roughly $300+ million in unclaimed property.
Treasury and Comptroller leaders told the House Finance Committee how they manage the Commonwealth’s finances, from maintaining the centralized ledger to administering debt, cash management and unclaimed property returns.
Sharon Lawrence, State Comptroller, explained that Department of Accounts maintains accounting policies and the Cardinal centralized general ledger and payroll system, issues the consolidated annual comprehensive financial report relied on by bond raters, and promulgates internal-control standards. "We maintain the Cardinal system, which is an ERP system. It's the statewide general ledger, as well as the centralized payroll system," Lawrence said.
Treasurer David Richardson outlined five Treasury product lines—debt, cash management, risk management, operations and unclaimed property—and said the Treasury staffs debt programs and relationships with rating agencies. "We handle all the debt for the Commonwealth and that means that we are responsible for what is right now approximately $20,000,000,000 debt portfolio," Richardson said. He added the Treasury’s cash-management portfolio totals about $45,000,000,000 when local-government investments are included.
Richardson highlighted the unclaimed-property program as a consumer-facing operation: the office gave a record $118,000,000 back to owners last year, collected roughly $300 million, and processed about 93,000 claims. He noted a recent statutory change allowed limited automatic mailings when owner data matched Social Security numbers and addresses for claims under $5,000.
Officials said these consolidated reports and audits are tools the committee should consult when evaluating tax and budget proposals. The comptroller and treasurer encouraged members to use agency resources when drafting bills and to watch for the fiscal-impact statements that describe assumptions and forecast scenarios.
The committee thanked the speakers and then moved to subcommittee assignments and adjournment.
