RALEIGH – The statewide elected office of State Treasurer does not get a lot of fanfare. While it’s not very flashy, marked differences in leadership philosophies yield dramatic differences to the bottom line of state retirees and, more importantly, taxpayers.
Former Democrat State Treasurer Janet Cowell paid all sorts of cushy fees to Wall Street money managers handling pension investments and put a lot of energy behind a measure to add gender dysphoria treatments (hormones, sex changes, etc., for the “transgendered”) to the list of covered medical treatments in the State Health Plan for state employees and their families.
Then there is Dale Folwell, who took his oath to heart. The conservative, all business, numbers guru that crafted plans to pay off billions in debt to the Feds ahead of schedule while in the McCrory administration assumed the State Treasurer position last year and immediately got to work cleaning up the balance sheets (and reversing the Leftist transgender insurance coverage measures).
After shaving tens of millions off investment fees for the pension, Folwell followed up with streamlining the State Health Plan administrative procedures to drive more efficiencies.
Wednesday, Folwell announced another win: Getting ahead of the curve regarding the new federal tax tables to pass on millions in savings ahead of schedule.
“North Carolina State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, announced today that January benefit payments to North Carolina retirees will increase by a total of $5.7 million this month thanks to the Retirement Systems Division (RSD) beating the clock on an IRS deadline.
The deadline was the result of the new federal tax reform law, which lowered the amount of federal taxes that should be deducted from 2018 benefit payments to North Carolina retirees and benefit recipients. Employers have until February 15, 2018 to update the federal withholding tables used to calculate how much is withheld from individual payments. The RSD Operations Team within the N.C. Department of State Treasurer was able to update the tables ahead of the IRS’s deadline.”
“I’m very proud of our team for taking the initiative so quickly after the new tax law was passed by Congress and signed by President Trump. While we are in the check delivery business, it involves more than just buying ink and stamps,” said Treasurer Folwell. “This is a testament to the outstanding job that our career public servants do to serve government workers.”
Folwell is being modest, as usual. When is the last time you heard of a government agency beating much of the private sector to a completion deadline? Well, the last time Folwell did it, of course.
This is really a testament to solid, conservative, results driven leadership that was sorely lacking in the State Treasurer’s office for years before he arrived.
Read more here.
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