Nick Mansour is running for an office most Arizonans couldn’t describe, running one of the most controversial programs in the state. And he says that job comes with a level of power the current officeholder isn’t using.
Mansour, the Democratic candidate running for Arizona Treasurer, said he’s consulted Arizona constitutional lawyers about whether the treasurer can legally refuse to cut a check for a fraudulent ESA voucher expense—even if the state superintendent, who shares oversight of the program, has already approved it.
“We’re not sure yet whether the treasurer actually has to still send a check,” Mansour said. “We’re still trying to figure out whether the treasurer can say, ‘I’m sorry, even though you are approving this, this is outright fraud and we’re not sending a check.’”
He was careful to say the question hasn’t been settled.
“We’re not bulletproof, but we’re not done figuring it out,” Mansour said, adding that attorneys he’s spoken with see good grounds that the state treasurer could refuse such a payment.
That a candidate is getting formal legal opinions on the question at all points to a part of Arizona’s voucher fight that has gone largely underdiscussed: the role of the state treasurer.
Co-management
The Empowerment Scholarship Account program, Arizona’s universal school voucher system, is co-managed by two statewide officials. The superintendent of public instruction has the first role in auditing expenses and approving reimbursements. The treasurer administers the accounts and, Mansour argues, carries a fiduciary duty to the state that the office has not fully used.
Mansour is the former chairman and CEO of the Arizona College of Nursing and a first-time candidate for public office. He’s facing Republican Elijah Norton, former treasurer of the Arizona Republican Party, in the November election. They’re competing to replace two-term Republican incumbent Kimberly Yee, who is term-limited and running for state superintendent.
The current treasurer’s office has drawn scrutiny over its handling of the ESA program. A 12News investigation documented ESA reimbursements for items including diamond rings, lingerie, and luxury appliances. The news outlet reported the treasurer’s office delayed or refused public records requests about total ESA spending for nearly a year.
“I am against the waste”
Mansour was careful about where he stands on vouchers.
“I am not against the ESA programs,” he said. “I actually support the ESA programs. I am against waste.”
That distinction places him closer to the middle of the argument, politically.
He said he’s spoken with families who homeschool their children using ESA funds, and he worries that continued misuse could put the entire program at risk.
What he objects to, he said, is how the money is being watched and how much the public is allowed to see.
Transparency
Mansour’s central claim is that the treasurer already has tools she isn’t using.
The first is transparency. He said the office could release information about where ESA money goes and what it is spent on, without disclosing any individual student’s information—and that it currently does not do that.
“We’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles to keep this information from the taxpayers,” Mansour said.
The second is review. Mansour said the treasurer can examine expenses and push back on the superintendent for questionable ones.
“[We can] go back to the superintendent and say, ‘Hey, are you sure you want to reimburse for this trip to SeaWorld or these Legos?’” he said. “Or whatever the case may be.”
He said he would hope transparency alone would curb the waste—“just because people don’t like to be embarrassed”—but that if it didn’t, the fiduciary-duty question is where lawyers would come in.
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“The treasurer has a fiduciary duty to the state, and I will take that fiduciary duty very seriously and will do whatever legally I can to eliminate the waste,” Mansour said.
He acknowledged that pursuing that approach could mean clashing with his own predecessor in a new office. He agreed it was a realistic probability given that he and Yee are both on the November ballot.
Mansour also drew a sharp contrast with Norton, arguing his opponent would bring partisan considerations into how the state invests its money.
“My opponent does want to use partisan political criteria for making investments on Arizona’s behalf,” Mansour said, describing Norton as Turning Point-endorsed and MAGA. He argued that approach “will make our investments both riskier and we will earn less, so taxes will go up.”
The limits of the office
Mansour was candid about what the treasurer cannot do. When asked whether the office could, for example, help fund a statewide free-lunch program to offset recent federal cuts, he said no, because those spending decisions belong to the Legislature and the governor.
“The treasurer can’t do that,” he said, though he added the office has a “bully pulpit” it can use to advocate for how money should be spent.
“There’s an influence there, but not a direct control.”
On the ESA program, though, he argued the office’s role is more than advisory, and that co-management and a fiduciary duty give the treasurer a real, but untested, lever.
“There is a much more active role that the treasurer can have,” Mansour said. “And it’s not just because it’s an administrator of the funds, but also because there’s a fiduciary duty to the state that the treasurer has, and I’m going to take that seriously.”
