Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is appointing state Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther as state treasurer, Sanders announced Thursday.
Walther will fill the vacancy created by last week’s death of Treasurer Mark Lowery after Lowery suffered strokes in March and June.
He will serve as state treasurer until January of 2025. A state treasurer will be elected in the 2024 election to serve the final two years of Lowery’s four-year term to which he was elected in November 2022.
Sanders said Walther will bring “a steady hand and a savvy head for business” to oversee the state’s investments in the state treasurer’s office
The governor said she will announce Walther’s successor as secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration next week.
Walther has led the finance department during Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s administration and the first seven months of Gov. Sanders’ administration and served as chairman of the state Board of Finance. He served as director of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission under Sanders’ father, Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The state treasurer is responsible for the state treasury’s investment portfolio of about $11 billion and serves on the state Board of Finance and the board of trustees for the Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, the Arkansas State Highway Employees Retirement System and the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
