[2] Whitehead successfully campaigned the Legislature for a constitutional amendment in 1995 to formally abolish the Treasurer's office, which was approved by voters in November of that year.
[3] The major duties of the office were to receive and keep state money, maintain accounts of all receipts and expenditures, collect cigarette and tobacco taxes and certain gross-receipts taxes, serve as custodian of securities in trust, receive unclaimed property held in trust, and administer money in a local government-investment pool called TexPool.
The administrative divisions of the treasury provided computer operations, legal support, and the sale and distribution of cigarette and alcoholic beverage stamps.
A system called TEXNET, begun in 1990, was designed to receive and process large taxpayer payments electronically to hasten interest earnings.
The treasury processed more than 34,000 checks a day from state agencies and earned more than $300 million in interest during the fiscal year.