State Treasurer Dennis McKinney took the oath of office yesterday in the House Chamber of the State Capitol.

Just as he did when he served as House Democratic Leader, McKinney will continue working to bring Kansans together in order to address the budget challenges facing our state.

Here are some highlights from his address: 

Many of the duties of the Treasurer may not be flashy but they are important and serious. The Treasurer performs duties in trust for the People of Kansas. Duties such as monitoring receipts, disbursements, and fund balances all point to a greater duty to be the watchdog for the financial integrity of the State of Kansas. Surely that is why the Treasurer’s Office has its own seal, one with a watchdog planted firmly in front of the doors of a vault. The Treasurer also holds in trust the unclaimed property of others and works to return this property to the rightful owners—a sign of the value we place on the right to ownership of private property in our capitalist free market system. The Treasurer also encourages thrift, saving, and investment in education through the education savings program—a sign of the value we place on hard work and education as the primary means of opportunity by which we advance ourselves and our families. My hope is that we can expand the perception of the education savings program to have it understood as an avenue to technical education as well as college—as a means to many of the best career opportunities in our 21st century economy. Perhaps most important are the leadership opportunities available to the Treasurer to partner with the Governor, the Legislature, city and county leaders, business leaders, as well as leaders from the nonprofit service organizations and faith based organizations to help people find long term opportunities to improve their families and communities. The Kansas Investment in Developing Scholars Program in which we match education savings investments for some of our poorest working families is an example of where we create opportunity by encouraging hard work and investment. I look forward to the challenges of being State Treasurer in this new time. We will seek to fulfill the trust given to us by the people of Kansas. We will work with others to find new ways to grow businesses and jobs. I start this job having learned an important lesson in the last year and a half. I was raised in a pull yourself up by your own boot straps culture. But one day my house was gone and I stood with the Governor in the school at Haviland and looked at an entire gymnasium full of my neighbors whose homes and community were gone. And we had to admit to ourselves and others that we needed help. From that lesson I gained a much greater appreciation of compassion and faith. Our message to the people of Kansas in these challenging times is this: if we stand together as neighbors, keep our faith in God, and make our decisions with compassion, then we can say with the Apostle Paul that while we may be hard pressed we will not be crushed, we may be perplexed but we will not be in despair, we may be struck down but we are not destroyed, and we are moving to the stars through difficulties.