8/13/2019 We recommend Harvey Hilderbran in GOP race for comptroller

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Austin American Statesman

Editorial Board

We recommend Harvey Hilderbran in GOP race for comptroller

Of Susan Combs, the four candidates running in the Republican primary to replace her as Texas

comptroller generally agree: She has made mistakes.

Combs egregiously inaccurate revenue forecast in 2011 contributed to an unnecessary $5.4 billion

cut to public education, and her office left the personal data of 3.5 million Texans exposed online for

about a year. But the race to replace Combs, who is retiring from politics, is not about the past eight

years but the next four. And we think state Rep. Harvey Hilderbran is the Republican best prepared

to be an effective comptroller and restore the offices reputation for accuracy and effectiveness.

Competing against Hilderbran to succeed Combs as the states chief financial officer and treasurer

are state Sen. Glenn Hegar of Katy, tea party favorite Debra Medina of Wharton and former stateRep. Raul Torres of Corpus Christi.

The Texas comptroller of public accounts is responsible for collecting state taxes and issuing the

revenue estimates that lawmakers use to craft the states two-year budgets during legislative sessions

held every other year. The comptroller also certifies that each budget passed by the Legislature is

balanced.

Hilderbran, 54, has represented Kerrville in the Texas House since 1989. He was chairman of the all-

important House Ways and Means Committee during the 2011 and 2013 sessions, which made him a

key player on the budget and taxes and put him in position to closely observe the comptrollers office.

His campaign is swimming in plans for making the office run more efficiently and for increasing the

accuracy of its revenue projections.

The central feature of Hilderbrans campaign is a 10-point performance pledge that includes

promises to improve customer service, conduct reviews of state agencies to recommend to legislators

ways to identify savings, and protect Texans personal information. He also promises to continue and

expand the move toward transparency begun by Combs (Hilderbran and the other candidates give

Combs credit for promoting open government).

In addition, Hilderbrans performance pledge includes a taxpayer bill of rights that he says will

strengthen the position of citizens who find themselves in a tax dispute with the state. Hilderbran

says he not only will protect taxpayers as comptroller but also will try to persuade legislators to make

his taxpayer bill of rights part of the Texas Constitution.

Hilderbran complains with the best of his Republican colleagues about the federal government and

its encroachment on state sovereignty, and GOP primary voters should consider his conservative

8/13/2019 We recommend Harvey Hilderbran in GOP race for comptroller

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credentials solid. But Hilderbran understands clearly that comptroller should not be a partisan

policymaking position, but one focused on performance, not politics.

Hilderbrans close rival is Hegar, 43. A member of the Texas House from 2003 to 2007 and a state

senator since 2007, Hegar has served on the House Appropriations Committee and Senate Finance

Committee, and chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Fiscal Matters during the 2013 session. He has

relevant experience with revenue and spending legislation.

Last session, Hegar was the author of Senate Bill 5, the anti-abortion bill that Democratic state Sen.

Wendy Davis filibustered in June. Hegar promotes himself as the conservatives conservative in the

comptrollers race. Thus he spends time focusing on issues gun rights, for example that have

little to do with the office for which he is campaigning.

Medina, 51, ran for governor in the 2010 Republican primary against Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen.

Kay Bailey Hutchison and surprised everyone by winning almost 19 percent of the vote. Her political

convictions quickly summarized as tea party are deeply held and sincere, but her discussion ofthe comptrollers job tends to drift toward policy. She wants, for example, to replace the states

current tax system with a consumption tax. Whatever the merits of this idea, it is a legislative pursuit

that prompts one to wonder why Medinas not running again for governor or for a seat in the

Legislature.

Torres, 59, is a former one-term state representative from Corpus Christi whose main credential is

hes a certified public accountant. He wants to applyLean Six Sigma principles to the comptrollers

office, which is managerial-speak for reducing waste, improving customer satisfaction and increasing

efficiency.

Early voting for the March 4 primary is underway and ends Feb. 28.

Whoever emerges as the Republican candidate for comptroller in Novembers general election will

face Mike Collier, the former chief financial officer of a Houston-based energy company and a former

partner in the accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCooper. Collier is running unopposed in the

Democratic primary.