State's Investment Earnings Triple

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma's investments netted the state $148.2 million in interest earnings during the past fiscal year, more than triple the amount earned two years earlier.<br/><br/>In 2005,

Monday, July 23rd 2007, 7:32 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Oklahoma's investments netted the state $148.2 million in interest earnings during the past fiscal year, more than triple the amount earned two years earlier.

In 2005, the state received $47.7 million from investment earnings. That number jumped to $98.3 million in 2006 before this year's increase.

State Treasurer Scott Meacham says there is a simple explanation for the higher yields. He says the state transferred surplus funds from a checking account paying minimal interest to investments that earn more interest.

Soon after becoming treasurer in June 2005, Meacham discovered that the state kept about $1 billion more in its checking account than was needed at any one time.

So Meacham put that $1 billion into investments that earned higher interest, and made some other changes in state investments, diversifying them and dividing them into one-year, two-year and three-year investment segments.