STATE TREASURER. The office of state treasurer described in the Constitution of 1876^qv was established as a state office by the Constitution of 1845^qv and superseded a similar office in the Republic of Texas.^qv The treasurer is elected and serves for four years as head of the State Treasury Department. The major duties of the office are to receive and keep state money, maintain accounts of all receipts and expenditures, collect cigarette and tobacco taxes and certain gross-receipts taxes, serve as custodian of securities in trust, receive unclaimed property held in trust, and administer money in a local government-investment pool known as TexPool. Additionally, the treasurer acts as chairman of the State Depository Board and the Cash Management Committee, officer of the Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company, and member of the State Banking Board and Bond Review Board. The State Treasury Department is organized into two divisions-fiscal management and administration. Within the fiscal management area the Fiscal Operations Division processes checks from state agencies and state warrants. The State Depository Board approves Texas financial institutions to function as state depositories and establishes interest rates on state time deposits. The Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company keeps several billion dollars in securities owned by state agencies and the treasury. Unclaimed money from dormant bank accounts, insurance benefits, corporate dividends, and mineral proceeds, for example, are handled through the Unclaimed Property Division; the treasury attempts to locate missing owners. The administrative divisions of the treasury provide computer operations, legal support, and the sale and distribution of cigarette and alcoholic-beverage stamps. The Cash Flow Estimating Division forecasts state expenditures and revenue. The Rapid Deposit Program develops efficient cash-management programs. A system called TEXNET, begun in 1990, is designed to receive and process large taxpayer payments electronically to hasten interest earnings. In 1990 approximately 260 employees worked in the State Treasury Department, which had an operating budget of more than $21 million. The treasury processed more than 34,000 checks a day from state agencies and earned more than $300 million in interest during the fiscal year.

Laurie E. Jasinski