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VIDALIA, La. — During the State Treasurer’s meet and greet at the Clarion Suites hotel in Vidalia on Friday hosted by the Concordia Parish Chamber of Commerce, he told attendees he believes in treating your “pennies like a dollar.”

John Schroder, now in his sixth year as Louisiana State Treasurer, said when he ran, “I didn’t do it for a paycheck. I did it for a challenge.”

He wanted to see what he could do to “make the process work better” and recover as many of the lost taxpayer dollars as he could. Schroder said he now feels that he’s done all he could in that position and could do more as Louisiana’s governor.

The 2023 gubernatorial election is scheduled for October 14, 2023. Incumbent Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards has reached his term limit and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term in office.

Before serving as State Treasurer, Schroder served nine and half years in the Louisiana House of Representatives. He is a former narcotics sheriff’s detective and served as a Criminal Investigative Division Special Agent in the United States Army. He and his wife Ellie are also small business owners in real estate, homebuilding and retail.

As a businessman, Schroder said he feels the government should run and operate like a business.

As a former law enforcement officer, Schroder said every dollar lost to fraud is worth recovering and that every criminal belongs in jail.

Schroder said he is fed up with politics that hinder actions.

There’s no such thing as standing still.

“You’re either moving forward or your falling behind,” he said. “We’re here to help fix and solve problems every day. …  I’m not going to punish legislators for not agreeing with me because that is punishing you.”

In introducing Schroder to Chamber attendees, Vidalia Mayor Buz Craft described how Schroder helped him when he was elected mayor and found the town’s finances in a mess.

“I asked for the legislative auditor to come into town and one of the first things they did when they came in was a detailed audit. The ironic thing was it took them two years to come out with their findings. Of course, by two years we had made so much progress. When they started putting that information out, they had Vidalia on a list of towns that were most likely to go bankrupt, which was completely not the truth,” Craft said.

Craft said Schroder helped the town secure a $7 million line of credit for an electrical substation that would support the town’s industrial park, allowing Vidalia to court large industries including Syrah and Vidalia Mills.

“At that time, we were being courted by Syrah and Vidalia (Mills) and we didn’t have the power and I wanted to get our name cleared up. John was the president of the bond commission for the State of Louisiana and I was able to sit down in his office and went over what my plan was (for a substation),” Craft said. “He’s a very intelligent guy and he’s not paying me to tell you this. I’m just telling you what he is.”