North Dakota State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt felt she was in a time warp when she took office in January 2005.

"When we took office four years ago, we were a completely paper agency," she said.

Since then, Schmidt and her staff have brought the office up to speed. The state Treasurer's Office has gone through updates to eliminate paper checks in favor of electronic checks, convert green-bar reports to the current technology format and develop new database systems.

The process of bringing the office into the 21st century was important to Schmidt, not only because of its quickness and convenience, but more importantly, state residents could have better access to public information.

"Since the day I took office, the state Treasurer’s Office began the transparency process in state government. I have long believed 'the people’s treasury is the people’s business.' We have gone from a “paper only” state agency which provided little information�-to a state agency which now, through the use of technology, provides transparency to 28 tax distributions to counties, cities and school districts. We’ve been busy bringing this office into the real world," she said. Schmidt, a Republican, is running for a second term in office against challenger Mitch Vance in the November election. She decided to run again because she feels her work isn't done.

"We've brought this office up to a whole new level, and there's much more to do, and the challenges and the opportunities...we want to just work hard to continue to serve the people of North Dakota," she said.

Schmidt is passionate about economic development, and created "BidND" in June 2005 to encourage growth in the state. Through a bid process, certificates of deposit are purchased from state financial institutions, which then lend the money back to their communities, garnering additional interest income for the state.

When she began her term, Schmidt noticed millions of dollars being invested outside of the state and she wanted to change that.

"Just like we have companies that come and invest in North Dakota, I thought we need to invest in ourselves, so we brought those dollars back. Through a process of bidding, we place North Dakota dollars in North Dakota financial institutions in North Dakota communities," she said.

Through the BidND initiative, millions of dollars have been invested in more than 60 communities in North Dakota, the state government Web site reports.

By law, the state treasurer must keep most of the state's dollars in the Bank of North Dakota because it's used as investments and to make loans, while the profits go back to the state general fund, Schmidt said.

Some of the money, however, can be invested in funds such as agriculture commodity groups, including the Beef Commission and Soybean Council, and the Veteran's Post-War Trust Fund and Veteran's Cemetery Fund, Schmidt said. She added these funds can benefit from BidND.

Schmidt decided to run again because her work isn't done. She's been developing a new tax distribution system that's expected to be completed by May 2009.

Meanwhile, she looks forward to serving the state's residents for another four years.

"The opportunity to serve the people of North Dakota is something I don't take for granted," Schmidt said.

Schmidt and husband Chuck have four sons and live in Mandan.