Office of State Treasurer Scott Meacham  October 30, 2009

Treasurer Meacham Announces Future Intentions

     OKLAHOMA CITY – State Treasurer Scott Meacham today announced he will
not seek another term as State Treasurer following the expiration of his
current term in January of 2011. He also announced that he will not seek
any other elective office.

“There has certainly been a lot of speculation on my future political
plans over the last several months,” Meacham said. “I appreciate the
patience shown by the media, my supporters and others as my family has gone
through a difficult time with the passing of my wife’s sister from cancer.

“I am completing an eight-year commitment to public service and
elected politics,” said Meacham. “Although I very much enjoy public service
and the job of being an elected public official, I find I do not enjoy
partisan politics and the process of continuously running for office. The
toll on my responsibilities to my family and just missing out on so many
moments in my children’s lives is too great.

“I have accomplished everything I set out to do in the Treasurer’s
office thanks to a great and dedicated staff that has worked hard to
implement my vision for the office since my first taking the post in June
of 2005. We have dramatically increased earnings on the state’s
investments, cut costs for state financial services, reduced staffing
levels and overhead in the Treasurer’s Office, greatly increased payouts
from the state’s unclaimed property fund and substantially expanded the
number of families taking advantage of the Oklahoma College Savings Plan.

“I appreciate the many Oklahomans from both political parties who
have encouraged me to look at the Governor’s race or the Attorney General’s
race. Although it would be a great honor to serve the citizens of this
state in either of those positions, I do not feel that is the best path for
me or my family at this time.

“I have not yet even considered what I might do next in my career,
although I certainly have accumulated an interesting resume as a banker,
attorney, state agency head and elected statewide office holder,” said
Meacham. “I believe the Lord leads us according to His will through doors
opening and closing along life’s path and while the elected office holder
door is closing, I am sure some other door will open.”

Meacham was named by Governor Brad Henry to serve as Oklahoma’s 17th
State Treasurer and began serving in that position on June 1, 2005, serving
out the remaining unexpired term of Robert Butkin.  Prior to being named
State Treasurer, Meacham had been the State Finance Director since January
of 2003.  Before answering Governor Henry’s call to serve as State Finance
Director, Meacham was the Chief Executive Officer and General Counsel of
the First National Bank and Trust of Elk City, Oklahoma.  Meacham was
elected to a full, four-year term as State Treasurer in 2006, garnering 59
percent of the vote in his first run for public office.

Accomplishments as Treasurer

Upon taking office in 2005, Meacham pledged to build upon the success
of Robert Butkin as State Treasurer while maintaining the integrity and
openness that Butkin had brought to the office.

On a day-to-day basis, Meacham manages more than $5 billion of the
taxpayer’s money.  The year before he became State Treasurer, the state
earned $48 million on these funds.  Through managing cash more efficiently,
diversifying the types and maturities of investments made and introducing
more competition to the investing process by introducing online trading,
Meacham increased earnings on the funds he manages to $98 million in FY
2006, $148 million in FY 2007, and $171 million in FY 2008.  In FY 2009,
despite the worst financial crisis since the great depression and the
Federal Reserve dropping rates on fed funds from 4.25 percent to 0.25
percent by the end of the year, Meacham was still able to earn $157 million
on the state’s investments (more than three times the amount earned on
those funds in a strong economy before he took office).

Treasurer Meacham has also worked diligently to save state government
millions of dollars on financial services.  He renegotiated the state’s
merchant card contract for accepting credit card payments and saved the
state more than $1.5 million over the five-year term of the contract.
Meacham renegotiated the state’s banking service contracts and saved
one-third or $250,000 per year.  He also instituted direct deposit of
payroll for state employees saving $250,000 per year.  During the darkest
days of the recession, Meacham stepped in and bought hundreds of millions
of dollars of state securities issued by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority,
the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority and the Oklahoma Capital Improvement
Authority when no one else would at reasonable rates thereby saving these
entities millions of dollars.

Meacham accomplished these enhanced earnings and savings while
cutting overhead at his agency.  He reduced staff by 20 percent,
eliminating 15 positions and saving $500,000 per year.  He also oversaw
projects to reduce paper and storage costs and to streamline IT processing
while enhancing security.

Another of the Treasurer’s responsibilities is running the state’s
unclaimed property program which seeks to reunite Oklahoman’s with their
lost property. By increasing public outreach efforts and streamlining
claims procedures, Meacham has increased the number of claims paid by 72
percent and the dollar amount of claims paid by 45 percent.

The Treasurer also serves as Chairman of the Tobacco Endowment Board
of Investors.  The Treasurer’s staff serves as staff to this board. The
purpose of this board is to invest the state’s tobacco settlement funds,
with the earnings spent by the separate Tobacco Endowment Policy Board on
tobacco cessation and other health-related projects.  This fund currently
has a balance of $429 million. Under Meacham’s leadership, earnings on this
fund have more than tripled.

Meacham serves as Chairman of the EDGE Board of Investors which
invests an endowment of approximately $150 million to fund applied research
and commercialization of technology projects in key areas of Oklahoma’s
economy that promise the greatest job production and economic growth and
development.  The Treasurer’s staff serves as the staff for this board.
This endowment was established in 2008 and Meacham’s efforts have focused
on getting the endowment established and then ensuring the fund fared well
through the recession that began in 2008 just as the endowment was being
initially funded.

Meacham is also the Chairman of the Oklahoma College Savings Plan.
The Treasurer has worked to increase the number of Oklahoma families taking
advantage of this great program designed to help Oklahoma families save for
the college expenses of loved ones. Meacham initially led an effort to
increase the number of investment options from three to six to make the
plan more attractive and then led a nearly two-year project to offer a
broker-sold option to Oklahoma families under the College Savings plan.
This change allows Oklahoma families to invest in the plan through their
broker, which is how up to 75 percent of families invest for college.  As a
result of these efforts and Meacham’s personal promotional efforts, the
Plan has increased by 144 percent and the number of accounts has grown by
more than 64 percent.

Meacham is currently focusing his efforts on working with the
Governor and legislative leadership to deal with the current budget crisis
the state is facing as Oklahoma feels the effects of the global recession.
In addition to being Treasurer, he continues to serve as Governor Henry’s
Secretary of Finance and Revenue, a position he has held since coming to
state government in January of 2003.  As the Governor’s Secretary of
Finance and Revenue, he is the Governor’s chief negotiator on budget and
other legislative and tribal issues and is his primary advisor on
budgetary, financial and economic matters.

Accomplishments as Cabinet Secretary

In Meacham’s capacity as the Governor’s Secretary of Finance and
Revenue, he has crafted and negotiated budgets with the legislature during
some of Oklahoma’s best and worst economic times.  He negotiated worker’s
compensation and lawsuit reform. He helped create and fund the EDGE
Research endowment to create jobs and help diversify Oklahoma’s economy.

Meacham helped create and then develop a funding source for Insure
Oklahoma, which provides health insurance coverage for low income working
families through their employer’s group insurance plans.  He developed the
funding stream to construct the OU Cancer Research Center.  He negotiated
the buyout and funding plan to save the OSU School of Osteopathic Medicine
and the OSU Medical Center in Tulsa.

Meacham negotiated compacts on gaming and renegotiated compacts on
tobacco with Oklahoma’s tribal nations.  He helped develop a funding plan
to pump millions of dollars into rebuilding Oklahoma’s crumbling roads and
bridges.  Also, he negotiated tax cuts to promote investment in Oklahoma
and to help Oklahoma families.  He also led an effort to address the under
funded status of Oklahoma Teacher’s Retirement System and devised a plan to
return the system to an adequately funded status after decades of
inattention.

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For more information contact:
Tim Allen, Deputy Treasurer for Policy and Administration, (405) 522-4212