This week, state Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis announced the Florida Division of Treasury earned more than $1.1 billion in earnings during the 2022-23 Fiscal Year, a new state record.
The Division of Treasury’s top priority is to protect taxpayer dollars, while being effective stewards of the operational monies and financial assets. The Florida Department of Financial Services manages approximately $60 billion in taxpayer money. Since Patronis took office in 2017, the Division of Treasury has earned nearly $4 billion in earnings.
“As Florida’s CFO, I’m proud to announce that our State Treasury earned a record $1.1 billion in earnings this past fiscal year. Florida’s investments are thriving thanks to strong fiscal stewardship and leadership in Tallahassee that is laser-focused on the bottom line and getting the best returns possible for taxpayers. This is an especially incredible accomplishment considering the reckless spending out of Washington that has caused unprecedented interest rate hikes in an attempt to fight record-breaking inflation. While the Feds and other states are hell-bent on crippling their economies with burdensome regulations, high taxes, and ESG scores; Florida is open for business and business is booming! Thank you to my dedicated team at the State Treasury for their hard work in prudently investing your state tax dollars so Florida families and businesses can thrive,” said Patronis.
Since divesting $2 billion from Blackrock, the State Treasury’s overall Long Duration Portfolio for the six-month period (December 2022 – May 2023) outperformed its benchmark by 41 Basis Points (2.415 percent vs 1.996 percent). In December 2022, the Division of Treasury redirected approximately $1.4 billion in former BlackRock-managed assets in the long-duration portfolio to the nine fund managers that were ranked higher on a risk-adjusted basis. The remaining approximately $600 million of short-term investment funds were managed in-house by the division.
The Department of Financial Services’ Treasury Division works to ensure that cash and other assets held for safekeeping within the Treasury are accurately accounted for, effectively invested and competently protected. The Florida Treasury utilizes pooled investments for all funds not immediately needed for State of Florida business. The Treasury Investment Pool incorporates a combination of short, intermediate and longer-term fixed-income investment strategies. The asset structure of the pool is designed to provide strong liquidity, preserve capital and provide excess returns to the State. This is done through the use of internal shorter-term, high-quality investment portfolios, as well as additional investment income using longer-term managed investments.
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