On his 95th and last “Ask Me Anything” call with reporters Tuesday, North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell reflected on his time as the 28th keeper of the public purse and what he thinks lies ahead for him and the state.
He has served as state treasurer since 2017. Before that, he was the assistant secretary of Employment Security at the state’s Department of Commerce, overseeing the department’s Division of Employment Security from 2013 to 2015. He also spent four terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives, including a term as speaker pro tempore from 2011 to 2013.
Folwell started the call by thanking his staff for helping make the calls happen every month with reporters.
“I’m gonna miss the creativity, the courage, and the hard work of the state employees, and this has nothing to do with their pedigree,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the shingles on the wall. It has to do with their hearts and intuition. It’s amazing some of the ideas these folks have given me over the last 20 years, first, the legislative staff, division of employment security, and now as the keeper of the public purse to address these things.”
One of his accomplishments, he cited, was buying back $20 million worth of the state’s general obligation debt at 71 cents on the dollar, something that he said has never been done by any treasurer in the country.
Folwell also mentioned how North Carolina averted a crisis in March 2023 when two large Silicon Valley California banks, including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), collapsed.
Folwell chairs the North Carolina State Banking Commission and said that he and NC Commissioner of Banks Katherine Bosken were closely watching the situation.
“We were probably less than 48 hours away from another run on the banks in this country, and as Chair of the State Banking Commission, that was a big deal,” he said Tuesday, adding that she and others on her staff were on the phone continuously with the FDIC, along with her other counterparts around the US regarding the contagion that SVB could have started.
“And it’s so ironic that one of the banks that we regulate, First Citizens Bank, ended up doing the transaction to take over Silicon Valley Bank, which was great for North Carolina, great for shareholders, and great for those customers,” Folwell said. “It’s one of those little things that happens and goes on at state government, and the state treasurer has some responsibility for his part of the State Banking Commission. I want people to realize that that could have happened this time also, and it would have been far worse than the financial crisis of 2008.”
He has also criticized Wall Street and ESG, especially regarding investments in the state pension plan, backing other states along the way. He told reporters that he feels good about where things are headed in the country.
“As far as Wall Street is concerned, I am more confident about the sunshine that I and others have put on the whole issue of ESG and making sure that we are not violating our fiduciary role of always being our customer first so I’m very optimistic about that trend on ESG and fees and co-investments,” Folwell said.
He is, however, pessimistic about another issue that he has been vocal about: healthcare or the “healthcare cartel” in the state, which he said is going in the wrong direction.
His office has released many reports over the last few years, including in September 2023, when North Carolina’s hospitals were called out in a report that showed a wide range in hospital pricing, huge price markups from Medicare rates, and a lack of price transparency. Other reports cited hospital systems like Atrium Health putting liens on people’s homes to pay for medical debt.
“We thought that Atrium only had 4000 liens on people’s houses, and they had probably double that amount, and what’s not being talked about, whether it’s the governor’s plan or other plans, is the harm that they put on the folks of this state by putting liens on people’s properties,” Folwell said.” The stunting of people’s upward mobility because of medical debt. I think the trustees are liable for this, not just these multimillionaire CEOs but the boards of trustees with these multi-billion dollar corporations who disguise themselves as nonprofits are responsible for this, and I don’t know what the new administration is going to do but I think they’re going to take a real hard look at the middle finger that’s been given to President Biden and President Trump over the last several years regarding transparency.”
He added that enforcing such laws must happen at the federal and state levels.
“All I’ve ever been asked for is high quality, high access, and low-cost health care, and over that period of time, quality has gone down, access, in my opinion, has gone down, and if you look at Forbes, they determined that we have the least value for health care in the United States,” Folwell said. “Every one of those three measures have gone in the wrong direction.”
Folwell also oversaw the change in the State Health Plan’s third-party administrator from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, which held it for decades, to Aetna.
When asked about the investigation into his alleged misuse of state vehicles during his tenure, he said the investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation is still ongoing, and he and his staff have been compliant with the SBI and with Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
“The use of the state car is something that we did in order to do what I was voted to do and sworn to do, and that is to address the needs of the constituents through the state treasurer’s office,” Folwell told reporters. “We did all of that with the highest degree of productivity, accessibility and efficiency and obviously the common sense that goes along with that.”
Folwell says the transition with State Treasurer-elect Brad Briner is going well. He said that as the incoming Chair of the Local Government Commission, he would have to look at the amount of debt at the county and city levels being put on property taxpayers. He hopes that Briner will continue on the path to paying off the state debt and that the General Assembly would like to have no General Obligation debt.
“So that goes along with the fact that I think we’re the first state that had a corporate income tax to eliminate it over the next few years,” he said. “So, no general obligation debt, no corporate income tax. I think that’s going to put North Carolina on a very solid path going forward.”
Folwell would not comment on running for public office in the future but said that his goals going forward are to make sure that God, his family, and his motorcycles are happy with him, in that order.
“With 28 years in public service and 20 years in Raleigh, I’m looking forward to getting back to my routines and my “framily,” not just family but friends, and my community back in Winston Salem,” he said. I’ve never established a second life or lifestyle 20 years ago when I came to Raleigh. I wanted to work and sleep in Raleigh, and that’s it, and that’s exactly what I’ve done.”
He said he has worked hard at being accessible with the job that he was sworn to do.
“My parting words to you are, as Lester Holt says every night, ‘Be kind to others,’” he ended the call.