Employees and parents across Oklahoma have spent years dutifully contributing to retirement accounts and the state’s 529 college savings program. Their hope is that the contributions invested grow to ensure a stable financial future for this generation and the next. However, many lawmakers across the country are continuing to inexplicably fight odd battles crusading against certain types of investing when in reality all we want as taxpayers is for our monies to grow.

The latest example is Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ, whose op-ed titled, “The Public Front and Private Fight for Neutral Education and Investments,” details his effort to fight multinational corporations’ practices—at the expense of securing seniors’ retirement accounts and students’ college funds.

Treasurer Russ has taken his eye off what should be his primary objective: ensuring that retirement and college savings funds are well-managed and deliver strong returns.

The mission of the Office of the State Treasurer is to “…serve the people of Oklahoma by providing sound banking and investment services, reuniting individuals and businesses with their unclaimed property, and promoting economic opportunities in a fiscally responsible and efficient manner while adhering to the highest professional and ethical standards.” Nowhere does the statement mention that the state treasurer should act as a proxy investor watchdog for large corporations. By making the policing of what certain corporations do or don’t do as his main focus, Treasurer Russ is wasting taxpayer money and neglecting the vital functions of his office.

Who stands to lose out from these misplaced priorities? The people of Oklahoma, especially the hard-working Sooners who have retirement accounts, pensions, or 529 college savings accounts. Studies in many states have found that efforts can be expensive for taxpayers and cut into pension earnings critical for current and future retirees. Treasurer Russ knows this, yet he is pressing ahead. He has seriously overreached and must reverse course before any more damage is done to the savings on which Oklahoma’s seniors and students rely.

It’s time to for free market principles limiting government intervention and expanding competition to be allowed to do their job so our economy grows, and taxpayers aren’t burdened by higher costs.

Let’s get back to focusing on financial oversight and stewardship, to ensuring financial security for current and future retirees, and to safeguarding our economy so it continues to grow and prosper.  

About the author: Trevor Dorsey is the Vice-Mayor of Bartlesville and a banking executive