Message From State Treasurer Ken Simpler

Q2The dog days of summer have arrived and they could not get here soon enough.

The 2015 legislative session ended on June 30 (really July 1 circa 6:00 a.m., if you want to be technical about it) and the 10-day State Fair concluded on August 1 (attendance of which is an article of religion here in Delaware politics).  For all practical purposes, July in public office goes by quickly, providing just the time to catch up and dig out from the end of the preceding fiscal year.

August, however, offers a rare lull in the State government calendar, a window to plan for, strategize over and focus on the “Big Picture” before the budget cycle begins anew in September.  I plan to make the most of it.

I may not have the rhythm of a whole fiscal year under my belt, but I sense its cyclicality and I feel I am getting my sea legs.  Moreover, I am applying my observations from the first six months in earnest:

    1. Time is flying.  I keep a 4-year calendar in my mind at all times and I have a lot I want to try to accomplish in that term.  While I would like to know more than I do now, I don’t have the leisure of keeping the training wheels on any longer.  I am shifting into a higher gear.

 

    1. Focus is key; Distractions abound.  Discerning both what is truly important and what I can actually affect has been my overriding concern these first six months.  No sense in jousting at windmills or rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.  I have the conceptual foundation for this worked out in three parts: office initiatives, committee work and “fiduciary at large.”  The devil, as always, is in the details, and the daily discipline.

 

  1. Leverage matters.  If I am going to be successful, I need a great team.  That is coming together.  While it has been a blessing to have my assistant, Martie Sturtevant, with me since Day One, I left my only other appointed position open through the first six months in office.  No more.  As of July 6, I have a new Deputy Treasurer in Nora Gonzalez.  Nora brings experience in both enterprise systems and credit analysis to our team – she will be a great resource to me and the office as a whole.

That gives you some sense for my approach, but as with my last blast, I am attaching a newsletter to provide you a more detailed idea of how I am allocating my time and my energies.  “Ruminations,” however, may be a more apt description.

I’ve included my perspective on our “budget woes” and the need to reorient the conversation around “value.”  I have recounted in some detail and tied into that discussion the recommendations of the Advisory Council on Revenues (a committee that consumed a good deal of my time through May).  And, I’ve attempted to indicate how the initiatives in the State Treasurer’s office relate to the foregoing.  I’ll allow it’s all a little dense, but I wouldn’t belabor it if it didn’t matter.

That said, if you do not have time to digest the full newsletter, try a quicker read – an editorial I penned for the News Journal in May.  It was written just as the Revenue Council concluded its work, but before the budget year ended.  The same three arguments are there, however: revenue stability, spending control and value creation.  Get used to that refrain if you’re going to be passing time with me.

If I miss you between now and Labor Day, enjoy the rest of your summer.  I’ve got some family vacation planned in Rehoboth before the kids go back to school (including one off to college!).  Otherwise, you can look me up in Dover where I’ll be using this late summer respite to prepare for fiscal 2016.

The clock is running and so am I.

Ken

Click here to read Ken’s Q2 newsletter

 

Click here to read Ken’s News Journal editorial

Simpler Family

2 Comments on "Message From State Treasurer Ken Simpler"

  1. Pat Fish says:

    He impresses me more every day.

  2. mouse says:

    But can he stop ebola and end reproductive freedom for women? LOL

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