The former state senator was joined by former Govs. Barbara Roberts and Kate Brown while her friend, Gov. Tina Kotek, conducted the ceremony

By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle

Elizabeth Steiner, a Portland Democrat and former state senator, took the oath of office as Oregon’s first female state treasurer in front of a crowd of legendary state politicians and prominent party figures. 

Oregon’s first female governor, Barbara Roberts, and former Gov. Kate Brown sat in the front row as Steiner was sworn in Monday night by Gov. Tina Kotek at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland. Roberts, Brown and Kotek are the only three women to have served as Oregon governor in the state’s 166-year history. Kotek told the crowd that her long history with Steiner as a colleague and friend gave her confidence that Oregonians were getting a treasurer who would look out for their futures. 

“We must ensure our young people can fulfill their promise and our workers can retire with safety and security,” Kotek said. “Elizabeth and I share a vision of Oregon as a place where every person has the opportunity to shape the future they want for themselves, and I just couldn’t be more proud of my friend today.” 

Steiner said she’ll help more residents save for college, retirement and for their children. She also promised to continue to focus on shifting the Treasury’s investments away from fossil fuels and into ones in clean energy. 

“I’m committing to you that during my tenure as treasurer, we will double the percentage of children in this state with a college savings plan, ensure the vast majority of Oregonians are saving for retirement; significantly expand the reach of the ABLE program, and establish a child savings account so that every child born in Oregon has a savings account available to them when they turn 18,” Steiner said. The Oregon ABLE program helps people with disabilities save for the future without risking access to public benefits. 

Oregon’s treasurer manages the nearly $98 billion Public Employees Retirement System, or PERS, which currently provides benefits to about 146,000 retirees. The treasurer also manages public banking and savings programs, including the Oregon College Savings Plan and Oregon Saves, a retirement savings program run through the Treasury. 

Steiner helped pass Oregon Saves in the Legislature and has been trying for years to expand the state’s college savings plan. A former family physician and adjunct associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University, she spent 12 years in the Legislature, including six as co-chair of the powerful budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee. 

In a release on Tuesday, she announced key people she’s hired to lead her staff: George Naughton will serve as deputy treasurer. He has nearly 30 years of experience working for the state, including most recently as senior adviser to the Oregon State Fire Marshal and the state’s chief financial officer. Barry Ford, formerly CEO and president of the Council for a Strong America that works to help kids succeed, will be chief program officer. And Sybil Ackerman-Munson, with about 30 years nonprofit experience, will be Steiner’s chief of staff. Steiner said they bring passion and experience to their roles.

“I am proud to bring on board such a talented team to work with the great staff at Treasury,” Steiner said.

Challenges and opportunities

PERS is facing a $28 billion unfunded liability due in part to a pre-2003 investment formula that made public employers liable for contributions for people they hired up to 2003. The problem has become especially troublesome in school districts this year, which are projected to pay $670 million more to the state’s public pension program over the next two years than the previous two. PERS is also facing poor returns on investment in recent years – 10% lower than expected in 2023 and 2023, collectively – in part because of underperforming private equity investments. 

Steiner said in a news conference before the ceremony that she is discussing funding strategies with Treasury staff and the four-member, governor-appointed Oregon Investment Council, which oversees PERS and other investments.

“We do need to think hard about the percentage of our portfolios invested in private equity, and we are thinking hard about it,” she said. “The trick is, how do you start to rebalance your portfolio without losing money.” Steiner said.

She plans to rebalance environmental funds and is working on several bills she hopes the state Legislature will adopt in the upcoming session, including one that would codify a net-zero policy for Treasury investments in state law. 

Former Treasurer Tobias Read, now secretary of state, debuted a net-zero policy in 2024 to reduce PERS investments in companies responsible for producing fossil fuels or emitting major greenhouse gases by 60% by 2035 and to get the portfolio to net-zero emissions by 2050. Steiner wants to ensure the plan is statutorily protected.

“Fossil fuels will not be profitable investments in the long term, and the long term is not very long from now, regardless of who’s in the White House,” Steiner said. “From a fiduciary perspective, if you want to talk about protecting the pension fund, we have to be looking at increasing our investments in alternative energy, the alternative energy sector and decreasing our investments in fossil fuels.”

Steiner also wants the Legislature to clear up statutory issues making it difficult for the Treasury to invest $580 million Oregon received from the Monsanto agrochemical company in 2022. That money was part of a settlement tied to the company’s alleged role in polluting the state for decades with PCBS, or toxic forever chemicals. 

She said it could be invested in perpetuity as a sort of endowment for the future. Without that, Steiner said, the state could lose the ability to leverage the money now to make more money that can then be used for long-term cleanup of PCBs and other toxic materials likely to exceed $580 million. Steiner said she’d learned a lot from Read and other predecessors, and that any major changes during her tenure would be small and incremental. 

“We’ll be taking a long, hard look at our investment status and our policies, because that’s what should happen whenever you get a new treasurer,” she said.

Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.