* Treasurer Frerichs had an outline in his head of what he wanted to say during his Monday inaugural address. He had no written speech. No written notes, either. As someone who has given several speeches over the years, I can tell you that is not an easy thing to do. The Frerichs folks transcribed the speech at my request. Click here for the video…

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to be with you here today. I want to congratulate my fellow constitutional officers and I want to say some thanks. I want to say thank you to my father. My father is a retired Teamsters truck driver. My mother is a retired AFSCME secretary from the University of Illinois, and they’ve raised me with a set of beliefs that have shaped who I am. I want to thank my wife, Erica, and my daughter, Ella, for bringing me untold joy and happiness in my life. And I want to thank you, the brave and hardy patient souls, who have sat through all of these speeches to make it to mine. Thank you.

This has been a really great year. I got married. I became a dog owner. I got re-elected. A lot of my friends got re-elected. We passed the Workers’ Rights Amendment. And a couple of weeks after the election, my wife let me know that this year we will be growing our family.

I like to say 2022 was an exceptional year, with the exception of the last month. You see, one month ago, on Dec. 9, State Sen. Scott Bennett passed away. The Senate lost a hilarious and hard-working colleague. His young family lost a devoted and loving husband. And I lost a true friend. And for those who know me in politics, I try to be optimistic. I try to see the good in every situation. But this one has been tough. The only real good I can find is that it brought home to me that none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow and that we should make the most of the todays we have. It reiterated to me that we should work to do the most good for the people of this state while we’re here and while we have this opportunity.

Now, eight years ago, I inherited an office that was mired in mediocrity. But I am proud to say that we have changed that. We have made many positive changes. I’m excited that we came in, and we have since taking office made over $1.5 billion in interest income — $1.5 billion that doesn’t have to be raised in taxes. The year before I came in, we helped municipalities and local units of government save and invest money. They made $50,000 in that year. Today, we are making $2 million per day. We took an unclaimed property system that was mired in the past and we dragged it into the 21st century. And as a result, we are a national leader, returning over $1.6 billion to Illinois families, business and nonprofits. We took a college savings plan with under 400,000 accounts and have grown it to over 800,000 accounts, from $7 billion in assets under management to more than $15 billion assets under management and received top ratings from independent ratings analyst Morningstar.

We didn’t stop there. We set up a new savings program to help people save for their retirement so that more Illinoisans can enjoy their golden years and have a retirement with dignity. And thanks to legislation passed by Sen. Scott Bennett, we set up a savings program to help people with disabilities have a brighter future. And it is now helping tens of thousands of people have their parents put them on a pathway to a more successful future.

But it’s another legislative fight that Senator Bennett engaged in that I want to talk a little bit about today. There was a coal-fired power plant in his district that had been dumping toxic coal ash into pits next to a national scenic river. Now that company did that, and it was a way to save money. I’m sure at some point in the past, some CEO making that decision helped to boost their profits by doing it this way. But what happened was years down the road, there were costs to pay. And that company has to pay millions and millions of dollars.

Now these are risks based on decisions that companies are making. As the chief investment officer, when we are investing funds for college savings, for retirement, we are long-term investors. We want to know about those risks so we can make informed decisions about our investments. We have been doing that for the last eight years. We have been engaging with corporations, we have been voting our proxies, we have been pushing them to do right for the long term. When you treat your workers poorly, when you slash their wages or cut their benefits, when you create unsafe work conditions, that may actually save you money in the short term and may get you a nice bonus that year. But we know that in the long term, you are going to lose human capital, you’re going to have less productive employees, and you’re going to risk them striking which will ultimately cost your company money. You may be able to save money by polluting the waters and the air around your company, but long term, it is going to cost you more money.

And we also know, if you look at the great diversity of our state and you welcome them all into your companies and onto your boards, you will benefit. Research has shown you will be more productive. And so we engage with those companies. We ask them to look at things like their environmental impact, their relationship with their workforce, and their commitment to diversity. And we know that when we do this together, we are stronger. And so, we have worked with other state treasurers. We have worked with union pension funds. We have worked with coalitions like the Human Capital Management Coalition, like Climate Action 100 Plus, and like the Midwestern Investors Diversity Initiative.

And I can tell you our work has been noted because we have received the attention of the fossil fuels industry, and they are funding a national campaign right now, working with red-state legislators, attorneys general and state treasurers to try and undermine our rights as shareholders. They want us to invest in the dark. They don’t want us to ask questions. They say, trust the CEOs, they know what’s best. But we know numerous examples where they have made decisions for the short run. But we invest for the long term.

When politicians in Texas and Florida and West Virginia try to take away our rights as state treasurers, our rights as investors, to be responsible in our investments, we will fight back. We will continue to engage with corporations to make sure they understand the value of treating your workforce with respect, that they understand the value of treating the environment with dignity, that they understand the value of diversity so that we can truly have a country of one nation, with liberty and justice for all.

I don’t know how many tomorrows I have, but I know that you gave me four more years. And as long as I have breath in these lungs, I will stand up and I will speak out for our retirees, for our workers, for our environment, and for all citizens in the state of Illinois. Thank you, Illinois, for giving me this opportunity, and God bless you all.

It’s a solid list of accomplishments, but, it’s also well-crafted. Near the beginning, he talked about how “none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow.” And then he finished with that same thought and closed the circle. I know it’s not the most consequential speech you’ve ever seen or read, but I thought it was worth pointing out.