Washington State Treasurer


The Washington state treasurer is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Washington. Twenty-two individuals have held the office since statehood. The incumbent is Mike Pellicciotti, a Democrat who began his term in January 2021. The treasurer's office is located in the Washington State Capitol.

Powers and duties

The state treasurer is the chief banker, financier, and investment officer for the state of Washington. In this capacity, the state treasurer receives payments made to the state, accounts for and manages the state's cash flows, and disburses public monies in redemption of warrants drawn by state agencies. The state treasurer is also responsible for issuing, registering, and servicing Washington State's $22.4 billion in outstanding debt. Likewise, the state treasurer directs and administers the investment of the state's operating funds and local government investment pool which, as of 2024, totaled approximately $41.816 billion in average daily balances. In addition to these routine functions, the state treasurer is concurrently an ex officio member of the State Investment Board, an independent state agency that oversees the investment of Washington's pension, permanent, and trust funds. WSIB's assets under management totaled $197.3 billion at the close of the 2023 calendar year.
Aside from being third in the constitutional line of succession to the office of Governor, most of the state treasurer's specific responsibilities are set forth in the Revised Code of Washington. In fact, the Washington Constitution only provides that "the treasurer shall perform such duties as shall be prescribed by law," a provision similar to the earlier enacted constitution of the neighboring state of Oregon. The constitution originally directed that the treasurer would be paid a salary of $2,000, though constitutional limits on officeholder salaries have since been repealed by amendment and are now set by statute.

Election and term of office

The treasurer is elected every four years on a partisan ballot; any registered voter in the state of Washington is eligible to stand for election. The Washington State Constitution requires that, upon assuming office, the treasurer establish residence in the state's capital city of Olympia. State law further requires he post a surety bond of $500,000, approved by both the Washington Secretary of State and the Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court.

List of Washington treasurers

The State of Washington has had a total of 22 individual treasurers, two of whom served non-consecutive terms. Otto A. Case also served as Commissioner of Public Lands from 1945 to 1949 and 1953–1957.
#ImageNameTermParty
1Addison Alexander Lindsley1889–1893Republican
2Orzo A. Bowen1893–1897Republican
3Cyrus Wilber Young1897–1901Populist
4Charles Warren Maynard1901–1905Republican
5George Grant Mills1905–1909Republican
6John G. Lewis1909–1913Republican
7Edward Meath1913–1917Republican
8Walter W. Sherman1917–1921Republican
9Clifford L. Babcock1921–1925Republican
10William George Potts1925–1929Republican
11Charles W. Hinton1929–1933Republican
12 & 14Otto A. Case1933–1937; 1941–1945Democratic
13Phil Henry Gallagher1937–1941Democratic
15Russell Harrison Fluent1945–1949Democratic
16 & 18Tom Martin1949–1953; 1957–1965Democratic
17Charles R. Maybury1953–1957Republican
19Robert S. O'Brien1965–1989Democratic
20Dan Grimm1989–1997Democratic
21Michael J. Murphy1997–2009Democratic
22James McIntire2009–2016Democratic
23Duane Davidson2017–2021Republican
24Mike Pellicciotti2021–presentDemocratic