League of Women Voters of Ohio Education Fund
State of Ohio November 2, 2010 Election
	Matthew P. Cantrell Answers Questions Candidate for Treasurer of State; State of Ohio

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Ohio and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What additional safeguards will you put in place to protect public investments? What are your investment strategies that would safely maximize the rate of return?

I will recommend that state pension funds reduce the portion of non-investment grade securities, and mortgage related securities. I will also seek an independent review of all current and proposed hedging strategies to mitigate risk. Finally, I will recommend that our pension fund long term growth assumptions be reduced from the current 8.00% level, as some states have done. This conservative assumption will give Ohio additional flexibility in future decades if long term growth materializes higher than expected. Regarding strategies to safely maximize rate of return, I believe that it is imperative for Ohio to continuously adapt its investments and strategies to changing market conditions. While it is certainly appropriate to have detailed procedures and laws guiding transactions on behalf of the public, we need to review whether these procedures are keeping Ohio from quickly exiting investments when necessary.

2. What would be your investment policy—to invest at a higher rate outside Ohio, or to support Ohio businesses, even though the return might be lower? Please explain.

The vast majority of Treasury assets are currently invested outside of Ohio, and a considerable portion of pension fund assets are invested outside of the United States. The Treasurer of State has a fiduciary and legal responsibility to properly invest taxpayer dollars while mitigating risk. I reject any proposal which compromises this responsibility, including an ―invest in Ohio‖ initiative. Such an initiative will only benefit the politician seeking publicity, not the taxpayer.

3. What criteria would you use to select among equally qualified investment vehicles?

I do not believe that it is possible for two investments to be ―equally qualified.‖ While two bonds may have the same credit rating, or two assets may have the same historical rate of return, this does not make the investments ―equally qualified.‖ There are an infinite number of variables and factors to consider when analyzing such a decision. The challenge is being trained to see the big picture, to formulate a strategy, to be firm in the strategy, yet flexible enough to adapt when conditions or facts change. For these reasons, I believe it is crucial for the Treasurer`s office to perform independent modeling and research to compliment any third party analysis or ratings.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. Word limits apply for each question. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 24, 2010 18:09
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