QA.

• Author: Lawler, Ryan
• Position: IN PRACTICE: INTERVIEW

DAVID ERDMAN is capital finance director for the State of Wisconsin. David has been a member of the State of Wisconsin Capital Finance Office since 1994, and he's been the director since 2015. David is also a member of GFOA's Committee on Governmental Debt Management. In this article, David discusses his work and hobbies with GFOA's Ryan Lawler.

Can you give our readers some insight into the work you do at the State of Wisconsin?

I'm currently the capital finance director, which means I oversee the capital finance office here at the State of Wisconsin. I've been the director for the last five years after learning many excellent principles and practices from Frank Hoadley, who was the capital finance director before me. A lot of the principles and practices that we still undertake today are things that Frank taught me over many y ears.

The Capital Finance Office is part of the State Budget Office. We work with people who develop the state's biennial budget and address day-today budget operations. The Office is responsible for all borrowings and debt issuances completed by the State of Wisconsin. We manage five different credits in this office, including general obligation bonds, a couple of appropriation credits, and revenue credits. All matters that include developing new bonding programs go through the Capital Finance Office. Our responsibilities also include the authorization, issuance, disclosure, post-issuance compliance, and anything else that relates to bonding or capital needs of the State of Wisconsin. I work closely with the State Budget Director and State Comptroller because all our functions are in the same division in the Department of Administration, and many of our functions interact and interrelate.

I've been in the Capital Finance Office since 1994.

I came over to this office from the Department of Natural Resources. Before that, I was working with communities to secure subsidized loans from the state revolving fund program.

Have you always had an interest in public service? Or has it developed over time as you've gotten more involved with the state as you've changed responsibilities?

I think people will find out in a hurry that there is no college course or degree in public finance. Obviously, you have a finance or political science background, and it's a mix of those two areas, or a legal field, that results in public finance. I wasn't thinking when I went to college that I'd be a capital finance director for the State of...