MinonkTalk
News
Home
Viewer Input
Search
Community
About Minonk
Businesses
Downtown
Churches
Baptist
Immanuel Lutheran
St. Patrick's Catholic
St. Paul's United Church of Christ
United Methodist
Community Center
City of Minonk web site
Filger library
Food Pantry
Minonk History Museum
Parks
New Millennia Park
Westside Park
Veterans Park
Residential
Schools
School history
Fieldcrest
Fieldcrest Sports Scores
Editorials
Current Editorial
Past Editorials
Past Email
History
History Home
Buildings
Businesses
Coal mine
Early Settlers
Family Photos
Origins
People
Old Photos
Sports
Stories
Tragedies
News
City Council Meetings
News 1900-2000
News 2001-On
Obituaries
Reference
Alumni
Minonk township cemetery
St. Patrick's cemetery
Gardening
Genealogy
Jokes
Minonk Map
Minonk HS Mohawks Version 1
Minonk HS Mohawks Bersion 2
Government Links
Recipes
Satire
Photos
Current Videos
Minonk History Videos
Stuff we get off the internet
Trees for this area
Daves Art
Download apps
What Does the Treasurer's Office Do?
Friday, April 26, 2024 Posted by Illinois State Treasurer
At my first meeting of the National Association of State Treasurers, a fellow Treasurer offered an observation: "If you have seen one State Treasurer's Office, you have seen one State Treasurer's Office."
What he meant was that Treasurer's Offices have different responsibilities from state to state. That can be confusing.
Nearly every organization we have belonged to in our lives has had a treasurer. Whether it was the student council at your high school, your Rotary club, or your church board, chances are good that the organization had a treasurer. What they all have in common is money, but those treasurers probably had different responsibilities.
So, it is not a surprise that as today's (April 15) tax filing day was approaching, I have been getting a lot of questions about taxes. We try our best to answer them, or refer people to the appropriate agency, but these questions have served as a reminder that many people just don't understand my office. I would like to use this note to give you a better idea.
Let me start with what we don't do:
We don't collect taxes.
That is the job of the Illinois Department of Revenue.
We don't set tax rates.
That is the job of the Governor and the Illinois General Assembly.
We don't process refund checks.
That is the job of the comptroller.
What do we do, you ask? Let me tell you!
We make money.
Last year, we brought in
$1.3 billion in investment income
for the state. Every dollar we earn is a dollar that doesn't have to be raised in taxes. We brought in more money to the state than gaming, cannabis taxes, and the lottery.
We help local units of government make more money.
Last year we
earned almost $1 billion
for towns, cities, and counties. That is nearly $1 billion that didn't have to be raised in property taxes.
We help people make money.
We
help families save for college, vocational programs, trade schools, and apprenticeships
. We
help people with disabilities save
for a more independent future. We
help workers save
so that they can have a retirement with dignity. Altogether, we oversee about $20 billion in savings for Illinoisans.
We help people make informed decisions about their money.
Whether it is through the financial education curriculum we sponsor in our schools, or our free online web portal, the
Illinois Financial Wellness Hub
, we want our residents to manage their money well.
We help those in need.
Through our
Charitable Trust
grant program, we assist small nonprofits in helping people experiencing food insecurity and homelessness, and help them learn job skills to get a good job to support themselves. We have helped more than 200 charities through over $4.3 million in grants.
We invest to create jobs.
Whether it be our farmers with our Ag Invest program, entrepreneurs through our
Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund
, small businesses through our
Business Invest
program, or putting people to work building infrastructure through our
FIRST Fund
, we work every day to put more people to work. It's estimated that more than 54,000 jobs have been created due to our targeted investments.
We fight every day on behalf of consumers.
We
find missing money
that is sitting with financial institutions or corporations and get it back into your pockets. We return about $1 million every day we are in the office. We do it because it's the right thing to do, and because putting that money back into your hands does more for our state than it does sitting in a bank account in Springfield.
I hope this helps you understand my office a little better. And I hope it helps you understand why I think this is the best job in state government. We are always looking for opportunities to help more people through this office. We stand ready to help as we can, but if you have questions about your taxes, please reach out to the
Illinois Department of Revenue.
Sincerely,
Michael W. Frerichs
Illinois State Treasurer
Tweet
Print
Email
What Does the Treasurer's Office Do?