Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti is making the rounds of the state this summer, recently stopping by Clark County to talk about key projects his office is pushing for related to finance.
Pellicciotti, a Democratic former Washington state representative who assumed the treasurer’s seat after defeating incumbent Duane Davidson in 2020, spent a handful of days in Southwest Washington last week. Part of his tour included meeting with local Rotary clubs and chambers of commerce on local issues, especially with relation to economics.
Rural issues have been of interest to Pellicciotti, who received his master’s degree in rural development and worked on those issues in Indiana prior to heading to law school and beginning his political career in Washington.
“I think what we’ve seen in the last few decades is the sucking of capital from rural America in general, but including rural Washington,” Pellicciotti said.
In an effort to help clear the gap, Pellicciotti has championed the “Washington Future Fund.” The program would invest $3,200 “baby bonds” for every child born under Apple Health, Washington’s version of Medicaid.
The money would go through the Washington State Investment Board. Depending on how the investments performed, Pellicciotti said between $10,000 to $15,000 per newborn could be raised by the time they were adults. That money could be used in a variety of ways, including further education in college or trades, starting a small business or for a down payment on property.
“Where we’ve seen generationally the inability to have the capital necessary to have that down payment, we would be essentially interrupting that cycle in allowing folks to have property ownership,” Pellicciotti said.
Half the births in the state are covered through Apple Health, Pellicciotti said, and in more rural areas like Cowlitz County the number’s closer to two out of three births.
“The wealth gap is only getting worse, and if we don’t get on the right side of it, we’ve got problems,” Pellicciotti said.
The Washington state Legislature approved $450,000 in the 2022 state supplemental budget to form a committee to look into the impacts the program would have. The legislature could enact the program officially next year.
Pellicciotti noted the program has received local support including Vancouver Democrat Rep. Monica Stonier alongside north Clark County lawmakers Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, and Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver.
At the national level, Pellicciotti has been working on federal legislation allowing for banks to work with cannabis businesses nationwide. The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act would prevent federal banking regulators from restricting banks’ ability to do business with the cannabis industry, even though federally cannabis remains illegal.
Even though Washington voters approved legalization of recreational cannabis in 2012, “Congress has done nothing during that time to make those (business) environments safe,” Pellicciotti said.
Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, the legislation has stalled in the Senate. Pellicciotti noted the SAFE Banking Act has received support from Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
“We’ve made real progress in the last few months in raising the importance of the issue nationally, and I think we can get this through now,” Pellicciotti said.
The treasurer reasoned the differing stances of senators on cannabis, from not doing anything regarding the industry to outright federal legalization, has led to the stall.
“Getting the Senate to agree where there actually is consensus is sometimes harder than it should be,” Pellicciotti said.
Because they can’t rely on banks, cannabis businesses have to rely on cash, which makes them crime targets. Pellicciotti said Washington had experienced as many as a robbery a day of cannabis businesses, as was the case earlier in the year.
“This is not just something that is helpful to the cannabis industry. This is an issue of public safety, worker safety,” Pellicciotti said.
Since assuming office in 2021, Pellicciotti said he’s worked on “refinancing every bit of debt that we could legally refinance in the state of Washington,” leading to $385 million in savings.
“This is money that otherwise would have gone to Wall Street in interest payments,” Pellicciotti said.
The refinancing happened prior to recent increases in interest rates. Pellicciotti said those rising rates have actually benefited the state with its own investments. The state’s Local Government Investment Pool allows cities and counties to use the treasurer’s office’s resources on investments for local purposes.
The treasurer’s office also allows governments like school and fire districts to finance capital purchases through the office, leading to lower interest rates.
Pellicciotti mentioned in Clark County that the program has financed a land acquisition for Clark County Fire District 10, a water tender for Fire District 13 and a ladder truck for Fire District 3.
“These are fire districts (where) it would be very challenging for them to finance these type of purchases … but by pooling these together we have achieved very, very low interest rates,” Pellicciotti said.
