What Bill Has Done for You

Before it was trendy, Bill Lockyer led the national fight to end Wall Street rating agencies’ discrimination against taxpayers. As a result, Moody’s and Fitch have moved to put taxpayers on equal footing with corporations when they hand out credit ratings for bonds. That means higher ratings and lower borrowing costs for taxpayers.
Treasurer Lockyer expertly managed $60 billion taxpayer investment fund unharmed through one of the worst recessions that battered similar funds across the country. The fund emerged from the market chaos of 2008 with every penny of principal intact.
Lockyer successfully fought legislation that would have eroded the California Earthquake Authority’s ability to pay for homeowners’ losses, and required policyholders to pay more for the reduced coverage.

Over the last three years as Treasurer, Lockyer sold $68.2 billion of bonds to finance infrastructure projects that created hundreds of thousands of critical jobs throughout California.
Sharpened economic development tools to help small business, create jobs and build the green economy.
Directed to California businesses $1.3 billion of financial assistance that helped create or preserve 73,120 jobs

As State Treasurer, Lockyer is working to fight global warming and stimulate green economy. Over the last three years, he has:

Restored and reinvigorated the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority within the Treasurer’s Office that provides financing for alternative energy. CAEATFA will play an important role in helping to spur a “green” economy in California.
Under Lockyer's leadership, the California Pollution Control Financing Authority provided $54 million of loans to clean up polluted sites throughout California so that housing and retail businesses could be built.
Treasurer Lockyer invested $300 million in World Bank green bonds to finance projects to fight global warming – the first purchase by a U.S. investor. Not only was this a good investment for the environment, it provided a good return on the state's money.

As a CalPERS boardmember, Treasurer Lockyer has fought for better disclosure rules by:

Pushing CalPERS to adopt a policy requiring disclosure of the identities and fees of high-priced middlemen – placement agents – who arrange investment deals. Treasurer Lockyer also sponsored successful legislation that requires placement agents to follow the same laws that govern lobbyists – no campaign contributions and no getting paid based on the size of the investment.
Sponsoring successful legislation to extend the CalPERS disclosure policy to local public pension funds.

Treasurer Lockyer will continue to advocate for honest, balanced budgets. He publicly called a recent, badly out-of-balance State budget “the most irresponsible budget of the past half-century” and urged the Governor and the State Legislature to get their act together.
Recognizing the need for a thoughtful review of the state’s infrastructure needs and what it will take to meet those needs, Treasurer Lockyer has proposed to change the State’s whole approach to budgeting by taking a longer-term view through the creation of a Master Plan for Infrastructure Financing and Development. The Master Plan would provide a long-range plan to build and finance the schools, roads, hospitals, housing, water works and other infrastructure California needs now, and in the future.

To help more families cope with rising cost of giving their kids a college education, Treasurer Lockyer has:

Launched the ScholarShare Project for Achievement and Recognition of Creativity (SPARC) pilot project to provide $150,000 in college savings awards to 200 K-12 students in Sacramento County schools.
Expanded ScholarShare, the state’s 529 college savings plan, by 64 percent. The program grew from 177,000 accounts and $2.3 billion in assets in 2006 to 259,000 accounts and $3.3 billion in assets in 2008.

Lockyer has worked to make health care available to more Californians – and preserve access to care at hospitals and clinics by:

Expanding the HELP II loan program access to health care for Californians who depend on small and rural clinics by increasing availability of low-cost loans to build facilities and buy equipment.
Launching an emergency financing program that helped hospitals preserve health care at the height of the credit market meltdown.
Providing bridge loans to hospitals and community clinics to keep their doors open when the state stopped funding them during the 2008 budget crisis.

Shortly after taking office in 2007, Treasurer Lockyer launched an innovative program to encourage Californians to invest in the state by creating the Buy California Bonds program. The Program features the first-of-its kind website in the nation to sell bonds to individual investors, which has since been replicated by other states and localities.
Treasurer Lockyer set national records for selling bonds to individual investors which has helped to curtail taxpayers’ debt service costs and provided a good opportunity for Californians to invest in our future.

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