COLUMBUS — Ohio treasurers don't tend to get much publicity, except in cases when there has been scandal in an office that oversees billions in taxpayers' funds.

Unlike some of his predecessors, Robert Sprague has avoided scandal and instead explains how his office tries to use tools to reach beyond state government to try to help farmers, businesses, hospitals, and families who don't have the same type of leverage the state has with banks.

“If you do your job and you're a good steward, you don't always get a lot of attention...,,” Mr. Sprague said. “You don't take the job of treasurer because you want headlines. You take the job because you want to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars.”

The 49-year-old Findlay Republican is seeking a second four-year term as the state's top banker and investor. He faces opposition on Nov. 8 from Scott Schertzer, the Democratic mayor of Marion. Tuesday marks the deadline to register, and voters may begin casting absentee ballots by mail and in person on Wednesday.

Jim Provance

Marion mayor seeks to unseat state treasurer

The election occurs as the state is flush with cash and as an overheated economy drives tax collections that have exceeded expectations along with inflationary pressures.

“Our investment criteria does not change from year to year...,” Mr. Sprague said. “In the treasurer's office, we just invest based on the return on principal, yield, and the liquidity needs of the state...All of our state assets are invested in very safe securities. We don't invest in equities.

“We try very hard to make sure that we mitigate our risk,” he said. “In the current interest rate environment, while it produces challenges for a lot of other industries, we feel pretty good about the safety or our portfolio.”

The state's robust finances have also led to Fitch Rating upgrading the state's long-term debt credit rating to a rare AAA.

“We're back as a state,” Mr. Sprague said. “The financial outlook for our economy in the future as a state is great. One of the things that I want to do in my next term is to figure out how to use this AAA credit rating. We're one of just 13 states that has the AAA credit rating, not for the benefit of the state of Ohio, but for all of our local communities around the state.”

He said he hopes that the state might be able to extend its high rating to garner better interest rates for local governments as they borrow for infrastructure development, a move that would likely need legislative approval.

“For the majority of my life, jobs have been leaving the state of Ohio, and that's been our story,” Mr. Sprague said. “I think the next 40 years are going to be completely different.”

Mr. Sprague, the only person from northwest Ohio holding statewide office, was first appointed to a vacancy in the Ohio House of Representatives in 2011, just as then-Gov. John Kasich was coming into office. He went on to win a term in his own right in 2012 and was re-elected two more times before running for treasurer in 2018.

Despite a degree in mechanical engineering, he was brought on as a management consultant by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young and then started his own consulting firm in Atlanta. So that his family could be near his parents, he moved back to Findlay where he served as both city treasurer and auditor.

“When I got into the legislature, I thought that I would be the finance guy...,” Mr. Sprague said. “And then a constituent of mine from Hardin County came in and told her story about her daughters being addicted to heroin. I kind of took a right turn. I didn't know anything about heroin...But I took it upon myself to learn that system.”

Mr. Sprague emerged as a leader in the House in getting legislation to Mr. Kasich's desk as an early response to an opioid epidemic that has only worsened over time. He successfully pushed bills to increase access to the anti-overdose drug naloxone and expand the Good Samaritan law to encourage people to report someone's overdose without fear of being prosecuted themselves.

“We haven't solved it,” Mr. Sprague said. “It's one of our biggest issues affecting families. We've got to do more on it, and it's going to require new thinking and new ideas. We can't just do more of what we've already done.”

He said he has tried to carry that mission over into the treasurer's office, using the state's fiscal clout to encourage private investment in innovation to address problems without endangering the state's money.

He points to a recent effort to increase access to optometrists in Appalachia, a region that has suffered from a lack of doctors.

“These mobile clinics are trying to close this medical gap in Appalachia,” he said. “That medical gap also exists for kids in downtown Toledo. So the hope is, if you're able to find a way to use a mobile clinic to close that gap in Appalachia, how else could we apply it across the state?”

He said the state has used its programs to help get lower borrowing interest rates for farmers who are dealing with the effects of inflation and to help families with the costs of adoption.

As with the entire Democratic ticket, Mr. Sprague's opponent said he expects the issue of abortion to help drive voters to the polls given the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade.

As a state lawmaker, Mr. Sprague did vote for legislation seen as increasing restrictions on abortion clinics, but he had moved on to the treasurer's office before Ohio's ban on most abortions after about six weeks was passed.

“The treasurer's office doesn't have anything to do with abortion,” Mr. Sprague said. “What it does have to do with is managing the financial assets and investment policies of the state of Ohio.”

As treasurer, Mr. Sprague has one appointee, an investment expert, on each of the state's public employee pension funds. He faced criticism from some retired teachers earlier this year when he chose not to reappoint their preferred member of the State Teachers Retirement System's board.

Mr. Schertzer has also accused the treasurer of not being vigilant enough over the board’s operations as benefits were cut and retirees went years without cost-of-living raises.

Mr. Sprague said he is forbidden from making investment recommendations himself.

“I've told each one of them personally (that) your job as my appointee is to make sure that the pension is there for that retiree when they retire,” he said. “That's it.”

First Published October 8, 2022, 9:14 p.m.