Editorial: ‘Fresh eyes’ are welcome

Sunday, March 25, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

While campaigning for the office she now holds, Nevada Treasurer Kate Marshall met with the Las Vegas Sun editorial board in October. Among the tasks she would first undertake if elected, she said, would be a review of state contracts negotiated under the direction of the former treasurer, Brian Krolicki.

She noted that Krolicki had been deputy treasurer before serving three terms as treasurer. "In the past, the contracts have been reviewed with the same eyes," she said. "Now we have fresh eyes."

Krolicki, who could not run for another term as treasurer because of term limits, ran for lieutenant governor and won. Marshall won her race, too, and kept her promise about reviewing contracts.

This month her reviews led to serious questions about contracts pertaining to the nearly $3 billion College Savings Plan of Nevada. This is a program that began under Krolicki's tenure as treasurer. It enables parents to pay into an interest-bearing trust fund, redeemable when their children begin higher education.

Assembly leaders granted Marshall's request for an audit of the program after she expressed concern about contracts with investment companies. In exchange for earnings generated from managing the money, the companies agreed to pay sliding fees to the state.

Marshall questioned why only $1.6 million of $5 million in fees actually went to the state, with the balance going toward advertising and legal contracts that were not expressly authorized by the Legislature. Some of the program's advertising prominently featured Krolicki during his candidacy for lieutenant governor.

Krolicki charges that Marshall is being "reckless" with her statements and says his management of the savings plan was "by the book."

Marshall also alleges that Krolicki purged records in his final days as treasurer and oversaw renegotiations of the savings plan's management contracts "that may not be in the best interest of the state."

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, already assisting legislative auditors as they examine the program's fees, also has been asked by Marshall to investigate why her office was left with no records relating to contracts signed under Krolicki's watch.

We hope the attorney general's office agrees to add Marshall's concerns about purged documents to its investigation. All the concerns expressed by Marshall require the state's full attention.