# Washington State Treasurer

The Washington state treasurer is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Washington. Twenty-two individuals have held the office since statehood. The incumbent is Mike Pellicciotti, a Democrat who began his term in January 2021. The treasurer's office is located in the Washington State Capitol.

## Powers and duties

The state treasurer is the chief banker, financier, and investment officer for the state of Washington. In this capacity, the state treasurer receives payments made to the state, accounts for and manages the state's cash flows, and disburses public monies in redemption of warrants drawn by state agencies. The state treasurer is also responsible for issuing, registering, and servicing Washington State's $22.4 billion in outstanding debt. Likewise, the state treasurer directs and administers the investment of the state's operating funds and local government investment pool which, as of 2024, totaled approximately $41.816 billion in average daily balances. In addition to these routine functions, the state treasurer is concurrently an ex officio member of the State Investment Board (WSIB), an independent state agency that oversees the investment of Washington's pension, permanent, and trust funds. WSIB's assets under management totaled $197.3 billion at the close of the 2023 calendar year.
Aside from being third (behind the lieutenant governor and secretary of state, respectively) in the constitutional line of succession to the office of Governor, most of the state treasurer's specific responsibilities are set forth in the Revised Code of Washington. In fact, the Washington Constitution only provides that "the treasurer shall perform such duties as shall be prescribed by law," a provision similar to the earlier enacted constitution of the neighboring state of Oregon. The constitution originally directed that the treasurer would be paid a salary of $2,000, though constitutional limits on officeholder salaries have since been repealed by amendment and are now set by statute.

## Election and term of office

The treasurer is elected every four years on a partisan ballot; any registered voter in the state of Washington is eligible to stand for election. The Washington State Constitution requires that, upon assuming office, the treasurer establish residence in the state's capital city of Olympia. State law further requires he post a surety bond of $500,000, approved by both the Washington Secretary of State and the Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court.

## List of Washington treasurers

The State of Washington has had a total of 22 individual treasurers, two of whom (Otto A. Case and Tom Martin) served non-consecutive terms. Otto A. Case also served as Commissioner of Public Lands from 1945 to 1949 and 1953–1957.
| # | Name | Term | Party |
| 1 | Addison Alexander Lindsley | 1889–1893 | Republican |
| 2 | Orzo A. Bowen | 1893–1897 | Republican |
| 3 | Cyrus Wilber Young | 1897–1901 | Populist |
| 4 | Charles Warren Maynard | 1901–1905 | Republican |
| 5 | George Grant Mills | 1905–1909 | Republican |
| 6 | John G. Lewis | 1909–1913 | Republican |
| 7 | Edward Meath | 1913–1917 | Republican |
| 8 | Walter W. Sherman | 1917–1921 | Republican |
| 9 | Clifford L. Babcock | 1921–1925 | Republican |
| 10 | William George Potts | 1925–1929 | Republican |
| 11 | Charles W. Hinton | 1929–1933 | Republican |
| 12 & 14 | Otto A. Case | 1933–1937; 1941–1945 | Democratic |
| 13 | Phil Henry Gallagher | 1937–1941 | Democratic |
| 15 | Russell Harrison Fluent | 1945–1949 | Democratic |
| 16 & 18 | Tom Martin | 1949–1953; 1957–1965 | Democratic |
| 17 | Charles R. Maybury | 1953–1957 | Republican |
| 19 | Robert S. O'Brien | 1965–1989 | Democratic |
| 20 | Dan Grimm | 1989–1997 | Democratic |
| 21 | Michael J. Murphy | 1997–2009 | Democratic |
| 22 | James McIntire | 2009–2016 | Democratic |
| 23 | Duane Davidson | 2017–2021 | Republican |
| 24 | Mike Pellicciotti | 2021–present | Democratic |