Unclaimed Property and your public school libraries

As the State Treasurer, I sit on the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. Along with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Secretary of State Doug La Follette, we help manage loans made to municipalities and school districts that can be used for any public purpose. The money from these loans comes from trust fund assets held mainly in the Common School Fund.

The interest on Unclaimed Property that my office is holding makes up a large portion of the assets in the Common School Fund. We are currently holding a little more than $391 million in unclaimed property at the State Treasurer’s office; property in the form of abandoned or forgotten funds.

Every year, I get to write a check and watch money from the Common School Fund be distributed to all K-12 schools on the State of Wisconsin! This year, I will get to distribute $33.6 million to the school libraries statewide. For many of these school libraries, these are the only funds they will get to buy new books for the children.

Just today, I approved $9.9 million in State Trust Fund Loans to benefit the City of Menasha and the School District of Shorewood in Milwaukee County. In the last 12 months, including actions approved today, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands has approved 168 loan applications totaling nearly $144 million.

Want to know more about how the millions of dollars in state loans helping schools as well as municipalities?

A complete list of Wisconsin municipal and school projects funded by today’s Board action can be found here: (http://bcpl.wisconsin.gov/docview.asp?docid=21821&locid=145).

A list of loans approved in the last twelve months can be found here: (http://bcpl.wisconsin.gov/docview.asp?docid=21820&locid=145).

The agency’s current biennial report can be found here: (http://bcpl.wisconsin.gov/docview.asp?docid=18464&locid=145).

Related articles

• $33 million for school libraries (wistatetreasury.wordpress.com)