These statewide seats in Idaho handle your taxes, and are up for election. What to know

Idaho’s top two finance officials, Controller Brandon Woolf and Treasurer Julie Ellsworth, both Republicans, are seeking reelection.

Ellsworth in her first term sought to shore up the state’s high credit rating while lobbing bombs at Democratic President Joe Biden for encroaching on private sector money management. Woolf, meanwhile, hopes to continue to bolster spending transparency to win back confidence in government.

Neither candidate faces strong barriers to reelection, as they line up against underfunded and largely inactive challengers. In phone interviews with the Idaho Statesman, the incumbents explained the duties of Idaho’s lesser-known constitutional officers and their goals.

In business terms, the treasurer is Idaho’s “accounts receivable” and secures money that comes to the state through taxes and fees, Ellsworth said. The controller is the government’s “accounts payable,” she said, and is responsible for paying Idaho’s bills, including employee salaries and agency expenditures.

“We are a check and balance on each other,” Ellsworth said. “The entity that’s pulling in the receipts should not be the hand that is also spending the money.”

Ellsworth looks to continue conservative fiscal management

As treasurer, Ellsworth is responsible for receiving and dispersing about $12 billion in public funds and making sure they’re funneled to the right place, usually state and local government agencies.

The treasurer’s office also invests public money, helping it grow before it’s spent. And it’s responsible for returning unclaimed property — such as a forgotten deposit or unknown life insurance policy — to its owner.

“But the primary function is to have good management of the funds, leveraging them when they’re not in use on the short term,” Ellsworth said. “The art of the treasurer’s office is matching the flow of money to the need, as different agencies are going to draw upon their appropriation. All of that takes experts, professionals.”

Ellsworth faces a Democratic opponent who has done little campaigning or fundraising. In August, Democrats named Deborah Silver, a Twin Falls accountant and business owner, as their treasurer nominee after primary winner Jill Ellsworth — no relation to Julie Ellsworth — withdrew from the race.

Silver told the Idaho Capital Sun that she decided to run to give Democrats a choice on the ballot.

“The most important thing was that Democrats saw a capable candidate running,” Silver said.

Before winning election to treasurer in 2018, Julie Ellsworth served 12 years in the Idaho House, representing Ada County, at various times between 1996 and 2012.

Ellsworth also has worked as a civil mediator, business consultant, grant evaluator and public school teacher.

In her first term as treasurer, Ellsworth launched a transparency report card, which annually highlights the state’s progress enhancing its credit rating, paying off debt and returning unclaimed property. Ellsworth said she’s also been working with local governments to refinance debt, which has resulted in $13.5 million in savings.

Meanwhile, Ellsworth has spearheaded Idaho’s Credit Rating Enhancement Committee, which advises the governor and Legislature on policies that will maintain a high credit rating for the state.

“It saves taxpayers money to get a good credit rating,” Ellsworth said. “I like to leverage what taxpayer dollars can do.”

Put simply, the rating is a credit score, and it means a municipal borrower presents less risk to bondholders who loan money. Since last year, two credit rating agencies have upgraded Idaho to AAA, their highest rating. Critics have noted that Idaho’s AAA rating is a sign that the state is stockpiling money instead of spending it on needed services.

Ellsworth also has taken a special interest in ESG, an acronym for an investment trend that evaluates risk and reward based on environmental factors, social consciousness and asset governance.

The Biden administration has proposed incorporating ESG tactics into Securities and Exchange Commission rules — for instance, requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions — which has drawn the ire of Ellsworth and other Republican leaders in Idaho.

Idaho banking and business advocates previously told the Statesman that they oppose efforts by the Biden administration to impose ESG regulations on money management. But they also fear the Idaho Legislature might overstep and restrict the private sector’s ability to invest in ESG-related funds and companies.

Ellsworth said she’s focused on keeping ESG tactics out of public money and protecting the private sector from burdensome ratings agency standards and federal regulations.

“I think I would be helpful to them so that they don’t have to attain a standard that is really not understandable,” she said.

Woolf pushes transparency on spending

As controller, Woolf is responsible for paying Idaho’s roughly 25,000 state employees and for paying the expenditures for 85 state agencies.

“The controller is like the checkbook for the state,” Woolf said.

Starting as an intern and later becoming former Controller Donna Jones’ chief of staff, Woolf has worked in the controller’s office for more than two decades. In 2012, after a car accident forced Jones to retire, former Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed Woolf controller. He won elections in 2014 and 2018.

Woolf faces two opponents in the controller race, neither of whom are actively campaigning or fundraising. Democratic candidate Dianna David told the Statesman that she’s a “placeholder candidate,” meant to retain a ballot spot for a Democrat while the party searched for someone else.

The Constitution Party nominee is Miste Gardner-Karlfeldt, an anti-vaccine activist with Health Freedom Idaho, who recently purchased the Idaho Dispatch, a conservative news site.

After a decade in office, Woolf said his greatest accomplishment is Transparent Idaho, a publicly accessible online platform that tracks state expenditures and is updated daily. Woolf said he began working on the website the day after he was appointed controller.

At the time, members of the public had to file a records request or call the controller’s office to obtain information, like employee pay rates, Woolf said. Transparent Idaho launched a few months after Woolf was appointed, and a modernized version relaunched in 2019.

“One small area of how we can help the citizens be more engaged ... is opening the books and showing where the data is, where the financial information is, and letting them be part of the process,” Woolf said.

Now, the controller’s office is looking to expand the platform to include local government expenditures. But that required local governments — counties, cities, urban renewal districts, school districts and others — to establish uniform accounting standards. The Idaho Legislature issued that mandate last year.

House Bill 73 created a committee to oversee local governments’ transition to uniform accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting procedures and make them publicly accessible on Transparent Idaho by 2025.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly supported the measure, though some Democrats opposed it because tight-budgeted districts in rural areas were likely to struggle funding the adjustments.

Over the last year, the controller’s office has piloted the new procedures with several counties and school districts, Woolf said.

“One of my main points for running, and continuing to run, is building trust in government,” he said. “Confidence in government is at an all-time low. I really feel like that’s an opportunity, of how we can help at the controller’s office.”