Agricultural News
Todd Russ Says a Banker is What Okahoma Needs in a State Treasurer
Mon, 23 May 2022 07:42:44 CDT
Western Oklahoma Native Todd Russ is making a bid at the Oklahoma State Treasurers office after representing Oklahoma's District 55 as a state rep since 2009. Farm Director KC Sheperd caught up with Russ, and He says he chose to run for treasurer because of his banking background. He knew he would be good as the Bank CEO of Oklahoma, "Being a former Bank President, bank owner, and CEO, that's what got me into politics to start with."
Russ has worn many hats throughout his political career as Chairman Emeritus of the Transportation A&B committee. He also serves on three other major committees: House Appropriations and Budget, Common Education, and Insurance, as well as being an Ag Producer himself. Russ said the thing he hears from producers is much like the same thing he hears from his own family, "We are hurting. I baled up about half of my wheat, going to try to cut a little bit, and if we don't get rain pretty soon, we are going to start selling cattle."
Russ said he also hears a lot about the floods in the Eastern Part of the state with Northeastern Oklahoma in a bad situation and says Southwest Oklahoma is still begging for rain, "it's serious."
Russ said he knows a few producers who have wheat left in the ground but says it doesn't look promising, "There are streaks everywhere, and I'd imagine less than half of them are going to get a wheat crop, and that's going to be 10-20 bushels to the acre on a lot of that." Russ says he's just trying to get his seed wheat back and pay for his fertilizer.
If elected, Russ says his first priority is to tackle the technology situation in the state treasurer's office, "It's pretty old, and I've gone deconversions and conversions in banks, so I know that side of it." He says he will also be looking at the unclaimed property fund process, looking into the trust process, "See why we are having such an in-filling of that particular area, and several other areas I'd like to take a shot at if I get in there."
Russ is a fourth-generation resident of Western Oklahoma and understands it's hard to get young people back to the farm. But, he said being a banker, he would like to see some incentives for young farmers, "The State treasures office in the past had some incentive money to do low-interest-rate loans through ag programs and small business programs. So I'm anxious to get in there and look at that and see if there's some money we could free up to help some of these producers at the state level and whatever else we can do to help agriculture in the state of Oklahoma."
To learn more about Todd Russ and his campaign, go to http://toddrussforstatetreasurer.com/
Click or tap below to hear KC's complete conversation with Todd Russ.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...