Issues

ADVOCATING FINANCIAL EDUCATION

As a longtime advocate of financial education, Kimberly created the first-ever statewide Arizona Financial Literacy Task Force to advance the awareness of personal money management to students, senior citizens, veterans and vulnerable families.

She worked with the Task Force to advance a law in 2019 to require high school students to have one semester of financial education and personal money management before graduating from high school. This allows students to have a basic understanding of real world, practical financial skills to provide a foundation for financial success.

During her time as a former Arizona legislator, Kimberly authored a law to require the Arizona academic education standards for K-12 education to include financial literacy at every grade level.  She additionally sponsored a bill that became law that adds a special recognition seal on graduation diplomas when a student takes additional coursework in financial education.

Kimberly believes there is a direct correlation between an individual’s and a family’s strong understanding of personal money management and the fiscal health of the State of Arizona.

ADVANCING A STRONG ECONOMY

Kimberly comes from a family of business owners who began their businesses in Arizona during the 1930’s and she and her husband are small business owners, so she understands the importance of maintaining a well-educated workforce and a strong, viable economy.

As Arizona Treasurer, Kimberly is the administrator of the AZ529 Education Savings Plan which helps families save for their child’s future education, whether it is college or vocational training.  She believes that every child can achieve their dreams with financial freedom when families begin preparing early for education and workforce development. Higher education and vocational training builds the foundation for a high quality and skilled workforce. In just 23 short months, Kimberly has increased new education savings accounts by 21,737 under the AZ529 Education Savings Plan.

With the country’s current inflationary economy, Arizonans need to keep a proven fiscal conservative leader who will protect taxpayers, invest our money wisely, and keep a steady hand of financial leadership at the wheel.

MANAGING SAFE INVESTMENTS WITH ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

Kimberly’s investment philosophy is “Safety, before Liquidity, before Yield” which puts the Arizona taxpayers first. The $63 Billion in taxpayer money that moves through the Office of the Arizona Treasurer must be safely and prudently managed by a person who has a reputation of honesty and integrity.  Kimberly’s record of performance as the Treasurer of Arizona has reached all-time record highs of outperformance in the investments, earnings and distributions made under her leadership.

With Kimberly Yee’s leadership, earnings distributed from the investment pools under her watch have reached $2 Billion new dollars in just 3.5 years.  In January of 2019, assets under management were at $15.4 Billion when Kimberly first took office.  This year, assets under management increased to $30.2 Billion, which is a 96% increase under Treasurer Yee’s time in office.

Kimberly was the first Arizona Treasurer to visit all 15 Arizona counties in her first year in office, establishing strong partnerships with rural Arizona and ensuring safe and wise investments for local governments across the state.

Funds for local governments have also increased during this time period, with local government earnings up 75% last fiscal year over the prior year.  This means more money that local governments may use for education, transportation, roads and infrastructure and less need for increased taxes.