Houston CPA Mike Collier’s vision for the state comptroller’s office isn’t pretty, but it’s one that could instill rigor into the state’s fiscal affairs.
“The comptroller is the grumpy person everybody needs to be afraid of,” Collier says, asserting that his decades steeped in accounting and corporate finance position him to be state government’s fiscal hard-nose. We agree that Texas would benefit from Collier’s outsider approaches to the way the state forecasts its budgets and pays its bills.
Collier, 53, a Democrat making his first run for office, faces state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, who’s served more than a decade in the Legislature. Hegar’s experience includes chairing the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission, which works to eliminate duplication and waste in state agencies. Hegar, 43, has creditable ideas for shaping up the comptroller’s office so it can focus on the core functions of serving as the state’s chief tax collector, accountant and revenue estimator.
But Collier promises a reformer’s zeal toward the comptroller’s office, which swung and missed wildly with its 2011 revenue estimate to the Legislature. That resulted in needlessly deep cuts to public education, the very reason Collier said he was moved to enter the race. He vows to issue quarterly revenue snapshots, well beyond the biennial reports the constitution requires and more in line with modern accounting principles. He also vows a watchdog role that would guard against the loose practices found in the Texas Enterprise Fund.
Collier is mounting more than a token Democratic campaign. He expects to spend $1.5 million and has lent his campaign $400,000. He also has an independent streak that should appeal to Texans: Collier voted for Republican Mitt Romney for president two years ago.
Libertarian Ben Sanders and the Green Party’s Deb Shafto are also on the ballot.
