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The leading voice for excellence in public finance
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Thought Leadership Thursday

NAST – 2023 Year in Review

ShaunSnyder23

Thought Leadership Thursday Article

NAST - 2023 Year in Review
December 21, 2023
CEO
National Association of State Treasurers

 

2023 | Year in Review

Reflecting on the past 12 months, we want to highlight some of our successes and share news about our educational conferences and other events, showcase how NAST members connect through our Networks and Caucuses, detail our communications and outreach efforts, and promote and protect public finance issues on behalf of our members to Congress and the Administration.

Who We Are

NAST’s membership is comprised of State Treasurers or state finance officials with comparable responsibilities from the United States, its commonwealths, territories, and the District of Columbia, along with employees of these agencies. The private sector is represented through NAST’s Corporate Affiliate Program, established to build professional relationships and foster cooperation between the public and private sectors. Former State Treasurers also continue to play a role in NAST with their own networking group.
11,052 State Treasurers and Staff Members, 115 Corporate Affiliate Member Firms, 73 State Treasurere Emeritus Members

Educational Conferences and Events

Conferences and events are a key component of NAST’s membership benefits. In the last 12 months, over a thousand State Treasurers, their staff, corporate partners, and other interested stakeholders attended the New Treasurers’ Training, Legislative Conference, Treasury Management Training Symposium (TMTS), National Institute of Public Finance (NIPF), and/or the Annual Conference for exclusive educational programming and networking opportunities.
1,359 In-person Attendees, 5 NAST Conferences, 356 Number of Speakers, 155 Hours of Educational Programming, 56 Hours of Educational Networking, 185 Gallons of Coffee Servedl

Networks and Caucuses

NAST added a new Network and Caucus this past year. Joining the College Savings Plans Network (CSPN), National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), and State Debt Management Network (SDMN) was the ABLE Savings Plans Network (ASPN). Along with the conferences throughout this past year, they held their own programming events.

To better serve the staff who work in State Treasury offices or other related state agencies, NAST hosted several peer-led caucuses differentiated by job titles and positions. These staff-led groups discuss topics related to work, seek mutual assistance from one another, and request information from other states.

We had numerous NAST Committee meetings as well! Thank you to all of you who participated in these events, calls, and meetings. We truly appreciate your efforts to keep NAST relevant to your work!
45 Number of Network Webinars, 362 Network Meetings, 32 Caucus Meetings

Communications and Outreach

Keeping in contact with our members and supporters is imperative to the NAST mission and we do that with newsletters, blogs, and our various websites.
456 Newsletters Sent by NAST Networks, 3,782,000 Unique Visitors to our Websites, 30,000,000+ Views of missingmoney.com, 71 Newsletters Sent by NAST and the Networks

Legislative Successes

NAST has had an extremely successful legislative year in many areas, including passing legislation we supported and further developing positive working relationships with federal agencies and legislative policymakers.

Some of the 2023 accomplishments of NAST, along with our affiliated Networks and our coalition partners, include:

  • Preventing sequestration of Build America Bond reimbursements

  • Passing the ABLE Age Adjustment Act

  • Continued working with Congress to extend the ABLE benefits included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that increased ABLE contribution limits, allowed rollovers from 529 to ABLE accounts, and made contributions to ABLE accounts eligible for the Saver’s Tax Credit Supporting legislation that will allow unused 529 college savings funds to be rolled over into a ROTH-IRA and making progress toward legislation that would include certification programs and other non-degree programs as allowable 529 eligible expenses

  • Supporting the reintroduction of legislation that would reinstate the ability for municipal bond issuers to utilize tax-exempt advance refunding

  • Continuing to prevent the elimination of tax-exempt financings for public entities

  • Now working with the SEC to minimize the financial impacts of the Financial Data Transparency Act on municipal debt issuers

As always, NAST will continue to advocate for all State Treasurers in a bipartisan fashion to pass legislation that will benefit the public we serve and stop legislation, legislative language, or regulations that would negatively impact our constituencies.

As we bring 2023 to a close, the NAST family wishes you and your families all the best for this holiday season. We look forward to seeing you in 2024 in Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and of course online!

Thanks for your ongoing support of NAST.

Catherine, Chris, Dillon, Emma, Eric, Jeremy, Kari and Shaun
National Association of State Treasurers

 

 

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