# Illinois Treasurer

The Treasurer of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the U.S. state of Illinois. Seventy-four individuals have occupied the office of Treasurer since statehood. The incumbent is Mike Frerichs, a Democrat. A former Champaign County auditor and state senator, Frerichs was first elected to lead the state treasury in 2014 following a close race with Republican candidate Tom Cross.

## Eligibility and term of office

The Treasurer is elected for a renewable four-year term during the quadrennial mid-term election. The Illinois Constitution provides that the Treasurer must, at the time of their election, be a United States citizen, at least 25 years old, and a resident of the state for at least three years preceding the election.

## Powers and duties

The Treasurer is charged by Article V, Section 18 of the Illinois Constitution with the safekeeping and investment of the monies and securities deposited into the state treasury. As such, the Treasurer is not the chief financial officer of Illinois. That role is occupied by a separate elected official, the Comptroller. Rather, the Treasurer functions as the chief banking and investment officer for the state of Illinois. In this capacity, the Treasurer receives payments made to the state, deposits monies with approved depository institutions, accounts for and manages the state's daily fund balances, directs and administers the investment of the state's portfolio of operating and proprietary funds, arbitrages bonds issued by the Governor, services principal and interest payable on state debt, and disburses public monies in redemption of warrants drawn by the Comptroller.
Other programs have been assigned to the Treasurer's office by law. For example, the Treasurer collects estate taxes due the state, approves the encumbrance of federal funds, offers various impact investment programs to farmers, small businesses and undercapitalized communities, and administers both escheats and unclaimed property accruing to the state. The Treasurer also facilitates tax-advantaged ABLE, college savings, and retirement savings programs to Illinoisans and provides a voluntary local government investment pool to Illinois' 9,600 or so counties, cities, villages, towns, school districts, and other localities. In addition to these routine functions, the Treasurer is concurrently an ex officio member of the State Board of Investment (ISBI), an independent state agency that oversees the investment of Illinois' public pension funds. ISBI's assets under management totaled $31.5 billion at the close of the 2024 fiscal year.
Aside from functional responsibilities, the Treasurer is constitutionally fifth (behind the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Comptroller, respectively) in the line of succession to the office of Governor of Illinois.

## List of office holders

| # | Name | Political Party | Term |
| 1 | John Thomas | Democratic-Republican | 1818–1819 |
| 2 | R. K. McLaughlin | Democratic-Republican | 1819–1823 |
| 3 | Abner Field | Democratic-Republican | 1823–1827 |
| 4 | James Hall | Democratic | 1827–1831 |
| 5 | John Dement | Democratic | 1831–1836 |
| 6 | Charles Gregory | Democratic | 1836–1837 |
| 7 | John D. Whiteside | Democratic | 1837–1841 |
| 8 | Milton Carpenter | Democratic | 1841–1848 |
| 9 | John Moore | Democratic | 1848–1857 |
| 10 | James Miller | Republican | 1857–1859 |
| 11 | William Butler | Republican | 1859–1863 |
| 12 | Alexander Starne | Democratic | 1863–1865 |
| 13 | James H. Beveridge | Republican | 1865–1867 |
| 14 | George W. Smith | Republican | 1867–1869 |
| 15 | Erastus N. Bates | Republican | 1869–1873 |
| 16 | Edward Rutz | Republican | 1873–1875 |
| 17 | Thomas S. Ridgway | Republican | 1875–1877 |
| 18 | Edward Rutz | Republican | 1877–1879 |
| 19 | John C. Smith | Republican | 1879–1881 |
| 20 | Edward Rutz | Republican | 1881–1883 |
| 21 | John C. Smith | Republican | 1883–1885 |
| 22 | Jacob Gross | Republican | 1885–1887 |
| 23 | John Riley Tanner | Republican | 1887–1889 |
| 24 | Charles Becker | Republican | 1889–1891 |
| 25 | Edward S. Wilson | Democratic | 1891–1893 |
| 26 | Rufus N. Ramsay | Democratic | 1893–1894 |
| 27 | Elijah P. Ramsay | Democratic | 1894–1895 |
| 28 | Henry Wulff | Republican | 1895–1897 |
| 29 | Henry L. Hertz | Republican | 1897–1899 |
| 30 | Floyd K. Whittlemore | Republican | 1899–1901 |
| 31 | Moses O. Williamson | Republican | 1901–1903 |
| 32 | Fred A. Busse | Republican | 1903–1905 |
| 33 | Len Small | Republican | 1905–1907 |
| 34 | John F. Smulski | Republican | 1907–1909 |
| 35 | Andrew Russel | Republican | 1909–1911 |
| 36 | Edward E. Mitchell | Republican | 1911–1913 |
| 37 | William Ryan Jr. | Democratic | 1913–1915 |
| 38 | Andrew Russel | Republican | 1915–1917 |
| 39 | Len Small | Republican | 1917–1919 |
| 40 | Fred E. Sterling | Republican | 1919–1921 |
| 41 | Edward E. Miller | Republican | 1921–1923 |
| 42 | Oscar Nelson | Republican | 1923–1925 |
| 43 | Omer N. Custer | Republican | 1925–1927 |
| 44 | Garrett D. Kinney | Republican | 1927–1929 |
| 45 | Omer N. Custer | Republican | 1929–1931 |
| 46 | Edward J. Barrett | Democratic | 1931–1933 |
| 47 | John C. Martin | Democratic | 1933–1935 |
| 48 | John Henry Stelle | Democratic | 1935–1937 |
| 49 | John C. Martin | Democratic | 1937–1939 |
| 50 | Louie E. Lewis | Democratic | 1939–1941 |
| 51 | Warren Wright | Republican | 1941–1943 |
| 52 | William G. Stratton | Republican | 1943–1945 |
| 53 | Conrad F. Becker | Republican | 1945–1947 |
| 54 | Richard Yates Rowe | Republican | 1947–1949 |
| 55 | Ora Smith | Democratic | 1949–1951 |
| 56 | William G. Stratton | Republican | 1951–1953 |
| 57 | Elmer J. Hoffman | Republican | 1953–1955 |
| 58 | Warren Wright | Republican | 1955–1957 |
| 59 | Elmer J. Hoffman | Republican | 1957–1959 |
| 60 | Joseph D. Lohman | Democratic | 1959–1961 |
| 61 | Francis S. Lorenz | Democratic | 1961–1963 |
| 62 | William J. Scott | Republican | 1963–1967 |
| 63 | Adlai Stevenson III | Democratic | 1967–1970 |
| 64 | Charles W. Woodford | Democratic | 1970–1971 |
| 65 | Alan J. Dixon | Democratic | 1971–1977 |
| 66 | Donald R. Smith | Republican | 1977–1979 |
| 67 | Jerome Cosentino | Democratic | 1979–1983 |
| 68 | James Donnewald | Democratic | 1983–1987 |
| 69 | Jerome Cosentino | Democratic | 1987–1991 |
| 70 | Pat Quinn | Democratic | 1991–1995 |
| 71 | Judy Baar Topinka | Republican | 1995–2007 |
| 72 | Alexi Giannoulias | Democratic | 2007–2011 |
| 73 | Dan Rutherford | Republican | 2011–2015 |
| 74 | Mike Frerichs | Democratic | 2015–present |

## Proposals to merge with Comptroller

Some observers have perceived an overlap between the offices of Treasurer of Illinois and Comptroller of Illinois, and have therefore proposed constitutional amendments to merge the two offices and earn administrative savings. For example, HJRCA 14, considered by the Illinois General Assembly in 2007-2008, would have merged the two offices into the office of a single State Fiscal Officer.
In 2011, the incumbent Treasurer along with the Comptroller (also former Treasurer) Judy Baar Topinka introduced legislation to allow voters to decide whether the offices should be merged. The legislation was opposed by Michael Madigan, Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.