(Jeff Carter) – When I talk to voters about the State Treasurer’s role, I learn pretty quickly whether they understand it. Most people don’t, and I don’t blame them.
The office doesn’t make headlines, and the work isn’t glamorous. But it manages billions of dollars of Nevada’s money, and getting it wrong is expensive.
Here’s what the office actually does.
The Treasurer is Nevada’s chief banker and investment officer.
The job is to receive state money, keep it safe, invest it prudently, manage the state’s debt, issue and refinance bonds, oversee the Permanent School Fund and the 529 college savings program, return unclaimed property to its rightful owners, and chair the State Board of Finance. The office handles roughly $12 billion in active investments and is the state’s primary representative on bond issuance and credit ratings.
What the Treasurer doesn’t do is set the budget (that’s the Legislature and the Governor), audit warrants (that’s the Controller), or make policy on tourism, education, immigration, or any of the issues that dominate political debate.
The constitutional and statutory framework is clear about this. It’s defined in Article V of the Nevada Constitution, which creates the office, and NRS Chapter 226 defines its duties. I’ve put the citations at the end of this post for anyone who wants the source documents.
Why the distinction matters.
The Treasurer’s job is rigorous in a specific way. It demands knowledge of markets, financial discipline, and the ability to execute decisions where the data is the data. There’s room for judgment. There’s no room for guessing.
That’s different from the work done in the Legislature, the Governor’s office, or the Lt. Governor’s office. Those roles set policy. They make value judgments about what Nevada should prioritize, where its dollars should go, and what kind of state we want to be.
Those are important debates, and Nevadans should have them at every kitchen table in the state. But they’re different debates from the ones the Treasurer’s office is built to have.
If you ask a Treasurer candidate what they’ll do for Nevada tourism, they might have an opinion. But the job doesn’t do anything for tourism. That’s the Lt. Governor’s portfolio, and Stavros Anthony does it well.
Ask about affordability, and the only honest answer a Treasurer can give is: I can earn the best return possible on the state’s portfolio, which keeps pressure off your taxes and fees. Anything beyond that is a candidate telling you what you want to hear about a job that can’t deliver it.
This is why career politicians like running for Treasurer. The office sounds important, the duties are technical enough that voters can’t easily evaluate the work, and a smart politician can spend four years issuing press releases without actually moving the needle on a single basis point of return.
That’s the trick. And Nevada has fallen for it before. Kate Marshall lost Nevada $50 billion.
The questions you should actually ask.
If you’re trying to figure out which Treasurer candidate is qualified, stop asking the questions you’d ask a Governor. Ask these instead:
How do you measure risk in a portfolio? What’s an acceptable level of risk for the state’s money?
What’s your strategy for the current $12 billion portfolio? What would you do differently from the current Treasurer?
Would you invest in taxable municipal bonds? Agency bonds? High-grade corporate bonds? International bonds? What are your standards for committing capital to each asset class, and how do you pick specific bonds within them?
Would you issue variable-rate bonds? Why or why not?
What would you do with the existing 529 program? What would you change?
Would you change how the Treasurer’s office reports to the public? Why?
What would you do differently with unclaimed property?
How would you approach financial literacy?
These are the questions Nevada voters should be asking. I have answers to all of them. They are specific, technical, defensible answers. Ask me. And ask whoever else is running.
If a candidate can’t answer those questions on the spot, they aren’t qualified for the job. It’s that simple.
For the source documents on the Treasurer’s constitutional and statutory role, see Nevada Constitution Article V (Sections 19 and 22) and NRS Chapter 226, available at leg.state.nv.us. The constitution establishes the office and election rules; NRS 226 defines the duties. Jeff Carter is a candidate for Nevada State Treasurer. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views. This article was originally published via JeffreyCarter.substack.com on 4/29/2026.
