Arizona Legislator Proposes Securing State Reserves with Gold and Silver

Phoenix, Arizona (January 22, 2019) – An Arizona legislator has put forward a bill to de-risk the state’s financial holdings with a modest allocation to physical gold and silver in the state’s reserve fund.

Introduced by Representative Mark Finchem (R-Tucson), the Arizona Sound Money Stabilization Act (HB 2500) requires that at least 10% of Arizona’s Budget Stabilization Fund be held in the monetary metals in a secure depository.

Arizona’s Budget Stabilization Fund has almost $500 million in assets but is currently invested in debt instruments and the stock market. The state owns no gold or silver.

Finchem’s past sound money initiatives have been successful. In 2017, Rep. Finchem passed the ground-breaking House Bill 2014, a measure which removed all income taxation of gold and silver at the state level.

Gold and silver do not have the default or inflation risks that bonds and other “fixed income” investments carry. Most importantly, physical gold and silver held in a depository carry no counterparty risk – or risk of failure or default – unlike stocks, bonds, and other financial assets.

In support of the measure, Rep. Finchem said, “it’s high time to safeguard the state’s assets and taxpayers against the volatile dollar.”

Furthermore, an allocation to precious metals is proven to increase overall returns over time, reduce volatility, and reduce drawdowns.

Backed by the Sound Money Defense League, this measure protects Arizona’s rainy day fund by including the only money proven to protect against the Federal Reserve Note’s ongoing devaluation.

Arizona’s Sound Money Stabilization Act comes on the heels of three sound money bills introduced in Wyoming last week.

Concerned that state investments have no protection against a stock market crash, credit crisis, or other existential financial risks, Wyoming legislators want a small portion of Wyoming’s pension fund, reserve fund, and mineral trust fund allocated to physical gold and silver held in a depository within (or near) the Cowboy State.

The Sound Money Defense League is a public policy group working nationally to bring back gold and silver as America’s constitutional money and publisher of the Sound Money Index. For comment or more information, call 1-208-577-2225 or email jp.cortez@soundmoneydefense.org.