Wednesday, March 16, 2005 | 9:50 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Two former Republican state treasurers split Tuesday on the issue of eliminating the state controller position and transferring its duties to the state treasurer.
Assemblyman Bob Seale, R-Henderson, the state treasurer from 1991 to 1999, called the elective office "archaic" and said $1.5 million could be saved over a two-year period if it were eliminated.
But Patty Cafferata, treasurer from 1983 to 1987 and former assemblywoman from Reno, said that having the two offices serves to check and balance the state's financial system and helps guard against embezzlement.
"The system is not broke," Cafferata told the Assembly Committee on Elections, Procedures and Ethics/Constitutional.
The committee wound up taking no action on the proposed constitutional amendment.
Seale has introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 3 to eliminate the elective office of controller and switch the work to the treasurer. Before that change could be made, however, it would need approval from this and the 2007 Legislature and then would need to be ratified by the voters.
Seale said while the elective office was not needed, the position was "critical and vital." He said a chief financial officer could be created with background and experience to run the office.
There are internal controls now to make sure there is no embezzlement within the two offices, Seale said. The Legislative Audit Bureau oversees the two offices, and there are outside audits of the offices and the banking community keeps a close watch on the operation, he said.
"It's time for Nevada to step into the 21st century," he said.
Cafferata emphasized the ways the two offices check and balance each other. The treasurer receives the cash and the controller writes the checks. "Neither can act without the other," she said.
She said the checks would still have to be written if the offices were combined. And a "high priced professional" would probably be hired. The controller now earns $80,000 a year.
"These are not obsolete offices. They are integral parts of the accounting system. We don't want to eliminate controls," she said.
She said an elective official is accountable to the public. And passage of this resolution would not affect present Controller Kathy Augustine who leaves office in January 2007. If there were savings, it would be a long way off since another controller would be elected in 2006 and the proposed constitutional amendment would not be passed by the voters until 2008.
Augustine also testified against AJR3, saying there was nothing to substantiate the suggested $1.5 million savings and there is no redundancy in the two offices.
She said eliminating the controller "reduces the voice of people in state government."
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