Speaker 1: Hatred Kest listeners. This week's episode is a recording of
Speaker 1: an interview I did in our offices with Don Haffins,
Speaker 1: the Republican nominee for control. Hope you enjoy it, honorable
Speaker 1: Don Halffans, thank you for being here. Congratulations on your
Speaker 1: primary victory.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you, Thank you, Matthew. I appreciate it. It's
Speaker 2: good to be here. First, let me just talk about
Speaker 2: that victory. I mean, this was really a huge win,
Speaker 2: really unpresced in it. This was not whimsical. I won
Speaker 2: by a huge majority in a very competitive primary for
Speaker 2: the Republican nominee to be the Republican nominee, and I
Speaker 2: got out spent.
Speaker 3: I worked on the campaign.
Speaker 2: For over a year, but it was really a year
Speaker 2: or two in the making because I was listening to
Speaker 2: the Republican voters and I've worked with them in the
Speaker 2: grassroots and the base for years, and they our message resonated.
Speaker 3: Had a great team.
Speaker 2: I won every county in Texas but ten I won
Speaker 2: DFW and the Houston metro areas about sixty three percent combined.
Speaker 2: So I bringing that up because I really think it
Speaker 2: sends a great message. I mean, my victory was margin
Speaker 2: was fifty seven and a half percent over some great candidates.
Speaker 2: And I think it just echoes the fact that Texans
Speaker 2: and Republicans in general really won't to find out where
Speaker 2: their money's going, how it's being spent, is it being
Speaker 2: spent properly or not.
Speaker 3: So I just wanted to bring that up to you.
Speaker 1: Tell me a little bit. I mean, you have, you know,
Speaker 1: history in Texas politics. You've been in the state Senate,
Speaker 1: you ran for governor in twenty twenty two. What was
Speaker 1: it about the Comptroller's office? Why that office?
Speaker 4: Why? Now?
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate that question.
Speaker 2: I'm going to roll back just a minute and tell
Speaker 2: you that about the Texas trip and why I'm here. Okay,
Speaker 2: if you don't mind. I went to your trip, as
Speaker 2: you know a couple of times. I was on a
Speaker 2: panel a decade ago. And and you know, the last
Speaker 2: time I was there, the reception wasn't the greatest for conservatives, right,
Speaker 2: I got the boot birds are out, But I knew
Speaker 2: Evan Smith very well. And and as actually I'm going
Speaker 2: to his to the LBJ School after this event to
Speaker 2: do a lecture over there. And and then it was Suell,
Speaker 2: your former editor or chief CEO, all a few years
Speaker 2: ago and I went to him and I said, guys,
Speaker 2: you really need a conservative voice on your on your paper,
Speaker 2: you know, and what you do.
Speaker 3: And because I love media, I mean I love.
Speaker 2: Papers and and he said, you know, he got back
Speaker 2: to me, we just don't do opinion pieces. And I said, well, hm,
Speaker 2: you need a conservative voice. But you the paper is
Speaker 2: an opinion piece. It's all to the left.
Speaker 3: So it really is.
Speaker 2: So I'm saying I'm here today to tell you the
Speaker 2: conservative what conservatives think, how we operate, or what we think,
Speaker 2: what we see the future of the state of Texas,
Speaker 2: because we have the answers to and the solutions to
Speaker 2: the issues that affect Texas.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to get that out.
Speaker 1: Sure, I appreciate that, and you know, I agree we
Speaker 1: want to have conservative voices and you know, on our
Speaker 1: stage and on our in our stories as well. So
Speaker 1: very much appreciate you being here and you know, sharing
Speaker 1: your perspective on this this important office. Let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about the Comptroller's office. Uh, you know, a
Speaker 1: statewide office. Some people call it the you know, the
Speaker 1: state's accountant, right has a lot of influence on you know,
Speaker 1: how much money is available to the legislature and how
Speaker 1: it is spent. Do you have priorities that you're coming into,
Speaker 1: things you really want to focus on, you know, assuming
Speaker 1: you in this office in November.
Speaker 2: Of course I do. I've got a lot of priorities, Matthew.
Speaker 2: But let me just tell you how important this office is. Okay,
Speaker 2: Texas is the basically the eighth largest economy in the
Speaker 2: world if we have our own gd The comptroller's position
Speaker 2: is constitutional. Of course, it's elected by the voter statewide,
Speaker 2: as we know, and its independent position. Fundamentally, let's just
Speaker 2: talk about the office has to The fundamental responsibility office
Speaker 2: is to set the budget, help the legislator set the budget,
Speaker 2: tell the legislature how much money they have to spend.
Speaker 2: But it's got to collect all the money. It manages
Speaker 2: all the money, and then it manages the spending. It's
Speaker 2: got eyes on the spending. And that's one reason I'm
Speaker 2: so excited about it. People don't understand often the scale
Speaker 2: of Texas, and we're spending way over five hundred million
Speaker 2: dollars a day every single day. That's over three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty thousand dollars every minute of every day, and
Speaker 2: we're Also, the Comptour is also the procurement officer for
Speaker 2: the state, and there's over two hundred state agencies, and
Speaker 2: there's so much more the comptroller does. It's really a
Speaker 2: huge undertaking, three thousand employees and it's a full time occupation.
Speaker 3: It's not legislative.
Speaker 4: Of course, let's talk about some of those things.
Speaker 1: I in my job spend a lot of time driving
Speaker 1: around Texas, which means, you know, during the primary season,
Speaker 1: saw a lot of Don Heffine's billboards out there political
Speaker 1: ads for the race. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: would see on those billboards was, you know, doge Texas right,
Speaker 1: this was this was something you were advocating for. Tell
Speaker 1: me a little bit about what that means, what that
Speaker 1: looks like to you.
Speaker 2: Of course I appreciate that question because that was the
Speaker 2: message that resonated. That's why I won a boy such
Speaker 2: a landslide, and what I just said. But Doje's Department
Speaker 2: of Government and Efficiency. It's more of a urb now
Speaker 2: than than any of they write.
Speaker 3: It's a verb.
Speaker 2: Everybody knows what it is, but it's about it's about
Speaker 2: having eyes own or spending primarily. And I'm a business
Speaker 2: guy and I have a lot of successful businesses, And
Speaker 2: I know that a dollar we don't spend is a
Speaker 2: dollar we earned.
Speaker 3: And it's really simple as that.
Speaker 2: And and so can we make government more efficient?
Speaker 3: That's really the question.
Speaker 2: Are we getting a good value for every dollar we're spending?
Speaker 2: Can we consolidate different functions, either in the Comptroller's office
Speaker 2: or in other state agencies?
Speaker 3: What is? And just ask simple.
Speaker 2: Questions like I did when I found that corrupt organization
Speaker 2: in Dallas County government organization?
Speaker 3: Why do you exist? What's your purpose?
Speaker 2: Are you really accomplishing what the legislature directed you to accomplish?
Speaker 2: Who's your customer and it's the taxpayers. So doging is
Speaker 2: about to me understanding that the money belongs to the people.
Speaker 2: It belongs to you and me. Government doesn't create any money,
Speaker 2: and it takes the money by force. The least we
Speaker 2: could do is make sure that it's being spent correctly.
Speaker 2: And to make sure that we could consolidate is making
Speaker 2: sure we've got skill in our procurement division.
Speaker 3: Are we getting the best dollar spent? Is anyone else?
Speaker 2: If we're buying a product our service, are we absolutely
Speaker 2: getting the lowest dollar? Is anybody else getting it cheaper?
Speaker 2: From that company than the state of taxes.
Speaker 3: I hope not.
Speaker 2: That's what many things we're going to be digging into.
Speaker 2: So give you a quick sample of that.
Speaker 1: Okay, excellent. I want to read just a brief excerpt
Speaker 1: from your website because it focuses on something specific that
Speaker 1: I want to ask about. Sure, on your issues page,
Speaker 1: you say he you will shift the focus of the
Speaker 1: Comptroller's office away from auditing businesses and toward aggressively auditing
Speaker 1: government spending, finding savings, and returning budget surpluses to taxpayers
Speaker 1: through property tax relief for businesses, renters, and homeowners. So
Speaker 1: you know, for those who may not know or understand, right,
Speaker 1: one of the functions of the Comptroller's office is tax enforcement, right,
Speaker 1: and auditing businesses to ensure they're in compliance. Is you
Speaker 1: know the hundreds of people in office focused on that?
Speaker 4: Are you.
Speaker 1: Is what you envisioned essentially shifting those people from doing
Speaker 1: that work on? How does that look in general? Will
Speaker 1: they no longer be auditing you know, businesses and and
Speaker 1: really be focusing on on agencies. What's the what's the
Speaker 1: breakdown of how that works?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Yes, not completely, not completely right now, it's the FTEs
Speaker 2: are about six hundred auditors.
Speaker 3: That's not full. Uh they're having difficulty hiring auditors. Uh.
Speaker 3: But say we get it up to six hundred, that's
Speaker 3: my goal or more.
Speaker 2: I think we'll be doing a lot of shifting around
Speaker 2: and the ORG chart's going to look a lot different
Speaker 2: when I'm there. But yes, absolutely, I'm going to put
Speaker 2: a lot of those auditors auditing government. And that's what
Speaker 2: I promised the people when I ran for office, and
Speaker 2: that's what I'm gonna do. And look, we've got a
Speaker 2: We've got different issues that affect the Comptroller's office and
Speaker 2: whether it's tax protest, I mean when people are having
Speaker 2: uh TEX compliance issues, businesses, individuals, the process.
Speaker 3: Takes too long to resolve those.
Speaker 2: We have administrative law judges and they take way too
Speaker 2: long to get those hearings. But people still businesses and
Speaker 2: individuals and whoever owes the money is still going to
Speaker 2: be paying it. But like I said earlier, if we
Speaker 2: can save a dollar, we earned a dollar. And what
Speaker 2: I'm saying is that I can use the bully pulpit
Speaker 2: to focus on property tax relief. I think it's the
Speaker 2: number one issue for the legislature this year. I don't
Speaker 2: think there's any doubt about that. Texans are tired of
Speaker 2: renting their property from the government and never owning it
Speaker 2: where it's their home or their business. And so I'm
Speaker 2: going to focus on using my bully pulpit and helping
Speaker 2: the legislature what can we do, what's the best approach
Speaker 2: to get property tax relief? And of course I got
Speaker 2: a lot of opinions on that.
Speaker 1: Well, well, let's talk about this, you talk about the
Speaker 1: bully pulpit. I mean, one of the things I wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of drill into is how much do you
Speaker 1: feel in your office you will have the opportunity to,
Speaker 1: you know, implement change or or require change, or how
Speaker 1: much of it is bringing to light the issues that
Speaker 1: you see and then you know, going to the legislature
Speaker 1: or whoever else to try to you know, put those
Speaker 1: changes into law.
Speaker 3: Well, a lot of it's both.
Speaker 2: You know, we'll have a list of legislative I priorities
Speaker 2: for the Comptollurer's office and for which of course reflect
Speaker 2: for the state of Texas, and we give that to
Speaker 2: the legislature and we hope they act on all that
Speaker 2: and I'll be communicating with them. And one thing I'm
Speaker 2: going to do is comptrollers make sure I have a
Speaker 2: real open door policy to the members. When I was
Speaker 2: in the Texas Senate, it it didn't seem to work
Speaker 2: that way, and a lot of a lot of members
Speaker 2: really didn't understand were what happened. You know, we appropriate
Speaker 2: the money and then we don't know really, you know,
Speaker 2: it's no one really overseeing it. The legislature meets one
Speaker 2: hundred and forty days every other year, and you know,
Speaker 2: and I'll say, well, who's watching over this? You mean
Speaker 2: you're not, I'm not, you know, So we need good
Speaker 2: eyes and ears on that. I can use the bully
Speaker 2: pullp it a lot, and I will. But it's also
Speaker 2: here's the thing. I'm the chief financial officer right for
Speaker 2: the state of Texas. Well, if the chief financial officer,
Speaker 2: I have a judiciary responsibility to make sure that the
Speaker 2: money is being spent correctly, it's not being stolen.
Speaker 3: That we don't have fraud involved, don't.
Speaker 2: It's a nonpartisan issue, right if you've got fraud, Most
Speaker 2: people in America, and in Texas particularly, and I'm always
Speaker 2: Texas first, we want people to help be held accountable.
Speaker 2: The Texans are very thirsty for that. They want to
Speaker 2: know that if people are taking the money and they're
Speaker 2: not supposed to be that they're going to be accountable.
Speaker 2: They're going to go to jail. And that's what I'm
Speaker 2: going to focus on. Can I just tell you a quick,
Speaker 2: quick issue on that. When I was in the Texas Senate,
Speaker 2: there was a I tell this tell a lot because
Speaker 2: it's it's not a tale, it's a true story.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: There was a line on my property tax bill and
Speaker 2: it said Dallas equal fine. And you know what, what
Speaker 2: worlds that I'm not? I don't even know. Then I
Speaker 2: dug into it and it said Dallas County schools. I said,
Speaker 2: what the world's that? I'm not even in their district.
Speaker 2: I represented the north half of Dallas County. No one
Speaker 2: told me to dig into this group. Nobody formed a committee,
Speaker 2: nobody formed a study group. It was just old Don
Speaker 2: digging into it. And I went and asked him a
Speaker 2: lot of questions. I said, why do you exist? Simple
Speaker 2: things I've already said, and and they couldn't answer. They
Speaker 2: really couldn't get me clear answers. And they were spending
Speaker 2: over one hundred million dollars annually. They had an elected
Speaker 2: wide board, county wide and and and bottom line is
Speaker 2: I got started digging into them and got the rangers involved,
Speaker 2: and we got the FBI involved over a three year period,
Speaker 2: and they were stealing millions of dollars from Dallas County taxpayers.
Speaker 2: And six people pleaded out and went to jail. I
Speaker 2: got a bill done and uh to close him down overnight.
Speaker 2: So it was the largest takedown of a government agency
Speaker 2: in modern Texas history. And including the mayor pro tem
Speaker 2: of the City Council of Dallas went down and he
Speaker 2: got seven years.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: But what I bring that up because what that group
Speaker 2: was spending in one year the state of tech I
Speaker 2: mean in one year, Yeah, the State of Texas spends.
Speaker 3: In nine hours. So uh.
Speaker 2: And it was corrupt and it was an elected agency.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying we got a lot of that, but
Speaker 2: I'm telling you if you don't look, you're not going
Speaker 2: to find it.
Speaker 3: And I was doging before you knew the word.
Speaker 1: So do you see within the powers of that office
Speaker 1: the ability in any way to you know, essentially take
Speaker 1: things into your own hands, you know, like with withhold money,
Speaker 1: or or you know, require changes in how agencies are run,
Speaker 1: or or is that something that more is necessary to
Speaker 1: go through other avenues of government.
Speaker 2: Well, I appreciate that question. Yes, to answer your question,
Speaker 2: I have to. I'm the chief financial officer. Wouldn't if
Speaker 2: if you're running to I'm a businessman, right, And and
Speaker 2: my chief financial officer says, I tell I've got a
Speaker 2: budget for something, and I give them the budget and
Speaker 2: I come back and they spend all the budget and
Speaker 2: I'll say, well, okay, let's ask questions about that. Where
Speaker 2: did the money go? What did you really spend it on?
Speaker 2: And they can't answer that, and they can't answer, well,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well I just relied on this bureaucrat
Speaker 2: to tell me this, and well, what did they know?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Let's dig into it. I would be an accomplice to
Speaker 2: a possible crime. If all those people are stealing money.
Speaker 2: I don't think they are.
Speaker 3: Don't know.
Speaker 2: But if I don't, look, do you think I should
Speaker 2: take Texas taxpayer money and keep funding it. Let me
Speaker 2: just give you an example. Okay, I traveled all over
Speaker 2: the state of Texas for this election, and I've traveled
Speaker 2: all over the state for you year. And that's why
Speaker 2: I won by such a landslide and we got outspent.
Speaker 3: Did I tell you that? Did I tell you that already?
Speaker 2: Okay, we did, and it was millions of dollars. But
Speaker 2: people when I get out of the car, people would
Speaker 2: hand me a folder a file. Every week I get
Speaker 2: more information in either delivered to my office in the
Speaker 2: mail or via email. Folders. They could be six inches thick,
Speaker 2: one inches thick. That could be a letter of the
Speaker 2: corruption that's in their county, in their school district, in
Speaker 2: their appraisal district, and their county commissioners. These are local
Speaker 2: people that are totally frustrated. They get no action, no relief,
Speaker 2: and they're begging me as I get out, please help
Speaker 2: us these this is all the files you need.
Speaker 3: Don't know, I don't have. I'm not in the position.
Speaker 2: I haven't had time to dig into that and then say
Speaker 2: people say, hi, fis what are you going to how
Speaker 2: you going to do? First thing I'm going to do
Speaker 2: is look at that. I mean, there is a lot
Speaker 2: of corruption in Texas. Unfortunately we're not immune to that.
Speaker 2: The scale that we deal with is massive. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of money, and so yes, I'll be looking at
Speaker 2: a lot of things.
Speaker 4: Excellent.
Speaker 1: You talked a little bit about reorganizing the office. Tell
Speaker 1: me what's your vision there. Do you feel like the
Speaker 1: level of the workforce is appropriate. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: there are people who need to be, you know, swapped
Speaker 1: out for other people or positions.
Speaker 2: I don't know that for sure, because I'm not there
Speaker 2: right We'll be interviewing a lot of folks.
Speaker 3: Obviously, when I.
Speaker 2: Get there, there's three thousand people. We'll be making decisions
Speaker 2: on all that. But I'm a business guy. I don't
Speaker 2: buy a business. I'm not buying this business. As you
Speaker 2: probably know, I never I'm not taking a salary. I'm
Speaker 2: not looking for a new job to make money. And
Speaker 2: when I was in the Senate, I'm the only elected
Speaker 2: office holder at the time in Texas history they ever
Speaker 2: took a penny from the State of Texas no pay, pension,
Speaker 2: health care, And I'm going to do the same as controller.
Speaker 2: But I'm looking to downsize government and make it doubly efficient.
Speaker 3: AI is going to have a lot to do with that.
Speaker 2: We all know that tide a wave is coming, there's
Speaker 2: no doubt about it. But let's just make sure that
Speaker 2: we were as efficient as possible. To answer your question, yes,
Speaker 2: I'll be analyzing and reorgan and reorganizing with an org chart.
Speaker 3: This is probably different, but that takes a while to
Speaker 3: get your arms around.
Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, Okay, let's let's talk about the relationship with
Speaker 1: with other offices. This is that the controller has an
Speaker 1: interesting history here dating back to when John Sharp was Controller.
Speaker 1: He instituted these government efficiency reviews. At the time, they
Speaker 1: were very popular, and in fact, I was reading yesterday
Speaker 1: about how President Clinton actually pulled John Sharp up and
Speaker 1: use him as an example of how he wanted to
Speaker 1: do similar efficiency reviews at the national level. He was
Speaker 1: followed by Carol Keaton Strayhorn. She was clashed a little
Speaker 1: bit more with the leaders, in which at some point
Speaker 1: folks in the legislature actually removed some of the powers
Speaker 1: of those reviews and put them in another office in
Speaker 1: the Legislative Budget Board. A lot of people, it was
Speaker 1: reported at the time, felt like she was using these
Speaker 1: reviews less for efficiency sake and more for her political future.
Speaker 1: She ended up eventually running against Rick Perry for governor
Speaker 1: in that office. You, of course have run against Greg
Speaker 1: Abbott before for governor. What is your relationship with him? Like?
Speaker 2: Now, Well, thank you for asking that question. A lot
Speaker 2: of people are very curious about that since we did
Speaker 2: run against him. Of course, he called me day after
Speaker 2: the election and he had his candidate obviously, and and
Speaker 2: congratulated me. We had a twenty five minute discussion, and
Speaker 2: then a couple of weeks ago he invited Mary Catherine,
Speaker 2: my wife, and I to the Governor's mansion and we
Speaker 2: had a great, great meal together. The three hour meal
Speaker 2: together is very generous him and Cecilia.
Speaker 3: To do that. And we're aligned.
Speaker 2: We're aligned on many issues that affect Texas, and we're
Speaker 2: going to work together.
Speaker 3: It's really critical that we do. I'm going to work
Speaker 3: with the governor.
Speaker 2: I'm going to work with the Speaker of the House,
Speaker 2: and of course the lieutenant governor. We all have to
Speaker 2: work together to make sure we saw excuse me, Texas
Speaker 2: problems and deliver a great conservative budget because the money
Speaker 2: belongs to us, the people. So we're I'm good with
Speaker 2: the governor and I'm good with everybody. I know a
Speaker 2: lot of people in the legislature, and you know this
Speaker 2: is Republican legislature, so we're all united, and we're going
Speaker 2: to be united in the fall too.
Speaker 4: How much would you see it as you job?
Speaker 1: I mean, not just the governor, but the lieutenant governor
Speaker 1: and the legislature others to serve as sort of a
Speaker 1: watchdog for.
Speaker 4: For their actions. And they're they're spending.
Speaker 3: Well, that's a good question.
Speaker 2: I'll be I'll say this, I am, excuse me, the
Speaker 2: taxpayer watchdog and excuse me just a second.
Speaker 3: Sure, and I'm gonna keep that reputation. I'm gonna be
Speaker 3: the taxpayer watchdog.
Speaker 2: So if they're you know, if we're spending the money
Speaker 2: where we don't need to spend it, they're gonna hear
Speaker 2: about it. But we're gonna work together constantly. I'm not
Speaker 2: here to embarrass anybody. I'm not here to get uh
Speaker 2: too much in the wii's with the legislative priorities. But
Speaker 2: I do have a bully pulpit and people expect me
Speaker 2: to use it.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest roles of the controller is, of course,
Speaker 1: they any biennial revenue estimate, which is released the day
Speaker 1: before the legislative session starts and sets basically how much
Speaker 1: money the legislature can spend. The comptroller has to certify
Speaker 1: the budget once it is written, and can you know,
Speaker 1: amend the estimates during the legislative session. How do you
Speaker 1: feel about how that process has gone in recent years.
Speaker 1: Do you view there needing to be any kind of
Speaker 1: change and approach to that work as you, you know,
Speaker 1: potentially head into office.
Speaker 2: Well, Being that I haven't done it before, it's hard
Speaker 2: to me. I really am not appropriate for me to
Speaker 2: answer that question. I know that the Speaker and the
Speaker 2: governor and the tenant governor and the comptroller have to
Speaker 2: get together and we got agree on stuff that starts
Speaker 2: a September. So this is a very interesting, unique process
Speaker 2: right now, whether there's this transition or there's not a
Speaker 2: transition of what's going to happen. But I'm open for
Speaker 2: suggestions on how to do the budget. I've got my
Speaker 2: ideas how to do the budget, and I'm sure they
Speaker 2: do too. Is the just simple questions are we do
Speaker 2: we do the budget the best way? Why don't we
Speaker 2: have zero based budgeting and other other things like that,
Speaker 2: and you know, to get rid of the use it
Speaker 2: or lose it mentality and government? So uh, you know,
Speaker 2: so I'm open to whatever the legislature suggests and I'll
Speaker 2: have my opinions.
Speaker 4: Okay, very good.
Speaker 1: I mean one of the you know, sort of awkward
Speaker 1: situations around this, right of course, you have a general
Speaker 1: election in November. If you were to win that, you
Speaker 1: would be inaugurated in late January. The bre comes out
Speaker 1: before then. Do you feel like you should be involved
Speaker 1: in that process at all leading up to them, or
Speaker 1: do you feel like you should kind of reevaluate it
Speaker 1: if you were to come into office afterward when that
Speaker 1: time happens.
Speaker 2: Absolutely I should be involved or I'm going to have
Speaker 2: to reevaluate it. I mean, I've got to sortify a
Speaker 2: budget that I really wasn't involved in. That's not the
Speaker 2: best approach.
Speaker 4: Okay, great?
Speaker 1: Another you know new role of the Controller's office is
Speaker 1: of course administering the voucher program. You have been a
Speaker 1: major supporter of this. You were advocating for this in
Speaker 1: the legislature when you were in it, back when it
Speaker 1: felt unrealistic for it to pass right. There was you
Speaker 1: know a lot of opposition in the House at that time.
Speaker 1: Now it is here, you have witnessed its role out
Speaker 1: with the Countroller's office. How do you feel like that's
Speaker 1: going right now?
Speaker 3: Well, it's going it's going well.
Speaker 2: I think the significant thing about it is the number
Speaker 2: of people of families that have applied. I mean two
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy four thousand families, and with minimal marketing,
Speaker 2: I should say I would venture to guess that if
Speaker 2: you went out there to the government school system today
Speaker 2: and ask anybody if they knew about it, you know,
Speaker 2: nine and a half out of ten people would say no,
Speaker 2: they didn't know about it.
Speaker 3: And uh so.
Speaker 2: It just shows how thirsty Texans are for great education
Speaker 2: or some change something different, whether they're disabled or whatever
Speaker 2: it is. And and look, I am being a huge
Speaker 2: advocate of it because I want our government school systems
Speaker 2: to be the best they can possibly be. I'm also
Speaker 2: a free market man, and I believe in the free
Speaker 2: in the free market and capitalism and what saved the world,
Speaker 2: and it's going to save our government schools. We need
Speaker 2: them to compete. We don't want monopolies, and we certainly
Speaker 2: don't want a government monopoly.
Speaker 3: This is the best solution.
Speaker 2: To make the government school is the best they can be,
Speaker 2: and they're going to compete. They'll learn how to do it,
Speaker 2: There's no question they'll learn why people aren't leaving.
Speaker 3: But the customer is right.
Speaker 2: The customer is the kid and the parent in that chair,
Speaker 2: and if they are not getting served, they need an
Speaker 2: option as simple as that, and so I'm a champion
Speaker 2: of it, and I think it's gonna go. It's going
Speaker 2: to go good, and I think we see the demand
Speaker 2: right now, and I think it's going to do nothing
Speaker 2: but substantially increase.
Speaker 1: Do you envision advocating for more money for that program
Speaker 1: in the future.
Speaker 2: Well, actually, the legislation that was passed UH requires the
Speaker 2: controller the way I read it, UH to add to
Speaker 2: the budget everyone on the wait list.
Speaker 3: Now the legislature don't have to fund.
Speaker 2: It, but they all but I am supposed to present
Speaker 2: them a budget with everybody on the.
Speaker 3: White list in the budget. Okay, very good, Yes, I
Speaker 3: think it will be added.
Speaker 4: Answer question, you think you think the legislature will, Well, yes.
Speaker 3: I think the political pressure is there.
Speaker 2: They see it, everyone sees it, and UH the members
Speaker 2: see it. And and like I said, that was minimal marketing.
Speaker 1: The most recent legislative sessions have been marked by UH,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty significant surpluses right growth in UH sales
Speaker 1: tax revenue, oil and gas revenue, federal COVID funds, a
Speaker 1: lot of things have created what up until a few
Speaker 1: years ago, we're sort of unprecedented surpluses for the for
Speaker 1: the legislature to spend feels like maybe this upcoming session
Speaker 1: might be a little different. Do you anticipate there being
Speaker 1: less money to spend this time around?
Speaker 3: Well, of course I'm not there.
Speaker 2: I can't give you the details on all that, but no,
Speaker 2: we're still going to have a surplus. And I like
Speaker 2: to look at it as I think we've overcharged the
Speaker 2: customer and we need to give that a lot of
Speaker 2: that surplus back to Texans. And I'm promoting, of course,
Speaker 2: like I have on the campaign trail, I'm promoting to
Speaker 2: give it back and talk excuse me, property tax relief.
Speaker 2: However the legislature wants to do it. I'm in favor
Speaker 2: of it, and I know that's the number one issue.
Speaker 2: Like I said, so, I think I think they're going
Speaker 2: to make a lot of progress on that.
Speaker 1: What is your what would your response be if you
Speaker 1: feel like the legislature did not sufficiently fund property tax cuts.
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk a minute about wealth creation. How can Texans?
Speaker 2: How can Texas government? What's the role of government? You know, really,
Speaker 2: what what do we do? We forcibly take money from people,
Speaker 2: but we've got to deliver a good service to people.
Speaker 2: The taxpayer. That's our customers. I keep saying, and.
Speaker 3: Property tax is.
Speaker 2: Something that that that can generate wealth if we cut it,
Speaker 2: it puts more money in people's pocket. And okay, let's
Speaker 2: just look at if we I'm for whatever the legislature
Speaker 2: comes up with. Any property tax relief is beneficial. And
Speaker 2: but how can we really generate wealth is across the board,
Speaker 2: get you know, start phasing out the M and O tax.
Speaker 2: But it has to be definitive. It has to be
Speaker 2: on a glide path to zero. People have to know that.
Speaker 2: We have to be committed. It has to be constitutional.
Speaker 2: We have to pass a constitutional amendment that the state
Speaker 2: of Texas is going to pay all the M and
Speaker 2: O tax that already pays about fifty percent of it.
Speaker 2: Whether the state should just pay it all, it might
Speaker 2: take ten years, fifteen years, or eight years.
Speaker 3: It depends.
Speaker 2: But we use our surpluses and we buy down that rate,
Speaker 2: and it benefits everyone that pays the rate equally, including
Speaker 2: businesses which we basically sign the paychecks don't have.
Speaker 3: Any of that.
Speaker 2: I will point out that my research shows that if
Speaker 2: you that real quick, I don't want to get too
Speaker 2: much in the weeds. But businesses and big and commercial
Speaker 2: property represent over three dollars worth of that that all
Speaker 2: that is sold on a net operating income, and property
Speaker 2: tax is the largest expense of any business because they're
Speaker 2: in strip centers or triple net leases.
Speaker 3: Well, they got to pay it.
Speaker 2: Well, a business is sold on a multiple of its
Speaker 2: net earnings. Commercial real estate, that building, everything is sold
Speaker 2: on a multiple of its net operating income. And if
Speaker 2: you can take that down, every dollar you save those
Speaker 2: businesses is a multiple of how much it's worth. It
Speaker 2: could be a twenty multiple, ten multiple, or twenty five multiple.
Speaker 2: And that our research shows it will create tens of
Speaker 2: billions of net worth for Texans. If we can do
Speaker 2: away with that and guess what they do with that money?
Speaker 2: They spend it, then sales tax goes way up. They'll
Speaker 2: laugh for curb you know, to supply de mend, you
Speaker 2: cut taxes and you government makes more money.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about I mentioned your billboards earlier.
Speaker 1: Another message on the billboards was fighting DEI right, what
Speaker 1: is what do you envision the controller's role being in
Speaker 1: this topic?
Speaker 4: This issue?
Speaker 1: And and and and also how do you how do
Speaker 1: you define de A?
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for that question.
Speaker 2: Uh, if the legislature and the governor have spoken, I've
Speaker 2: got an obligation to do to enforce it if I can, right,
Speaker 2: I'm not going to And if I see there's a
Speaker 2: government agency or my agency that is involved in DEI
Speaker 2: and the governor says we're not going to have it,
Speaker 2: the legislature says we're not going to have it, I'm
Speaker 2: not going to have it.
Speaker 3: As simple as that, We're not going to do that.
Speaker 2: And if a and if an agency, I'm not sure
Speaker 2: or should they get money to break the law, you
Speaker 2: can ask you, well, okay, then i don't know if
Speaker 2: that's a good idea, and it's not a good idea, and.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to let them do that, as simple
Speaker 3: as that.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to let a university or a state agent,
Speaker 2: seere my agency break the law over the wheels of
Speaker 2: the state's statue so.
Speaker 3: And might not get their money.
Speaker 2: Simple as that, I'm going to at least try to
Speaker 2: enforce the law.
Speaker 4: I mean, what would cross the threshold to you for.
Speaker 1: Being a situation where you would feel like you would
Speaker 1: need them to not, as you say, get their money,
Speaker 1: Like what is what is that?
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 1: DEI can be such a sort of amorphous topic depending
Speaker 1: on how you talk about it, Like what is that?
Speaker 1: What would that actually look like?
Speaker 2: In your minth I have to look at the legislation
Speaker 2: and really study it and make sure that we're following
Speaker 2: the law. And if it's ambiguous, we have a little
Speaker 2: bit of a leeway to interpret it. I don't like
Speaker 2: ambiguous laws. I like everything being very definitive. I want
Speaker 2: I don't want the comptroller have to interpret a lot
Speaker 2: of things. I don't want this interpreting tax law. I
Speaker 2: want it to be clear. So a lot of things
Speaker 2: that aren't true I mean aren't clear at the office.
Speaker 2: I will be asking the legislature to give more clarity.
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 1: One of the things I've been sort of trying to
Speaker 1: I guess drill into understand from you is like how
Speaker 1: willing are you to use the levers at your disposal
Speaker 1: to you know, restrict cash to what you may envision
Speaker 1: or see as bad actors, either if it's around DEI,
Speaker 1: whether it's around efficiency or anything else like that, Like
Speaker 1: what do you see how much, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, wiggle room do you think you have to
Speaker 1: step in when you feel like you see something wrong
Speaker 1: within government, whether that's an agency or legislative spending.
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate the question. At you.
Speaker 2: Again, I've got to produce your responsibility to the tax
Speaker 2: by your period and they expect me to do to
Speaker 2: step in, whether I'm stepping in on the legislature with
Speaker 2: the legislature to help and in communicating what I'm seeing,
Speaker 2: what we're experiencing across the state or in this agency
Speaker 2: or that agency, can we get some legislation done to
Speaker 2: fix it? And if that's not the case, I'll have
Speaker 2: to evaluate everything when I see it and to understand
Speaker 2: the significance of it, the severity of it, or are
Speaker 2: they you know, how bad is it? And I'm telling you,
Speaker 2: if you're stealing it, we've got problem.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the general election a little bit. How
Speaker 1: do you view the climate out there right now? Political climate?
Speaker 1: It's a midterm election. Oftentimes the president's party can struggle there.
Speaker 1: We are, of course though in Texas, right what do
Speaker 1: you see both for yourself and other Republicans you know,
Speaker 1: coming down in November.
Speaker 2: We're going to smoke it. It's not even going to
Speaker 2: be closed, it's really we're going to smoke. Okay, Hey,
Speaker 2: look this is Texas. This is Texas. Our culture is unique.
Speaker 2: We're special. Do we want to be like all the
Speaker 2: other states? No, our heritage is unique and our party
Speaker 2: represents that. And I asked what we want A limited government.
Speaker 2: That's a conservative principle. We want to take as little
Speaker 2: money from the taxpayer as possible to deliver the very
Speaker 2: best product possible. And that's what the that's a conservative message,
Speaker 2: that's a Republican message. We're We're a party that believes
Speaker 2: in God. We're a party that believes that we need
Speaker 2: to have morals. We're a party that believes in law
Speaker 2: and order. We're a party believes in the free market.
Speaker 2: We want everyone to have equal opportunity. We want everyone
Speaker 2: to be as rich as they want to be. We
Speaker 2: want everyone to have joy in their life. And we
Speaker 2: want everybody to be morals. They have great morals and
Speaker 2: great ethics. Texas is our heritage was founded on the
Speaker 2: blood of our patriots. We're not going to change that,
Speaker 2: and I don't think anybody come in here that wants
Speaker 2: us to change it.
Speaker 1: Another thing that I saw on your on your website,
Speaker 1: we talked about de I, we talked about dodging the government.
Speaker 1: You talked at at times about UH, you know, preventing
Speaker 1: government funds from UH landing in the hands of radical Islamists.
Speaker 4: Uh, what do you mean by that? When when when
Speaker 4: you talk about that as a priority.
Speaker 3: About UH, tell me again real quick.
Speaker 1: So I believe on your site, you know, you talk
Speaker 1: about fighting DEI and also preventing government funds from UH.
Speaker 3: Going to radical Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sure, of course, Well this is about terrorism, That's really
Speaker 2: what it's about. The Governor's declared that Muslim Brotherhood and
Speaker 2: Care are terrorist organizations and and of course we're not
Speaker 2: going to allow government money, taxpayer money to go to
Speaker 2: any organization that's affiliated with them. I mean, we are
Speaker 2: at war right now with salam Is with his Islamic nations.
Speaker 2: So it's it's even more germane now than it was
Speaker 2: a few months ago.
Speaker 1: There there's been some discussion around the voucher program about
Speaker 1: you know, UH schools associated with the Muslim faith being
Speaker 1: denied access.
Speaker 3: Do you.
Speaker 4: What's your view on that?
Speaker 1: Should should school Muslim schools be allowed to participate in
Speaker 1: the program.
Speaker 2: This isn't about religion, This is about terrorism and that's.
Speaker 3: What it's about.
Speaker 1: So so in that case, if a school is affiliated
Speaker 1: with Muslims with Muslim religion. But you know is like
Speaker 1: many Muslims in Texas, you know, law abiding, faithful, you know,
Speaker 1: people members of the community. You don't see any issue
Speaker 1: with with them being allowed to.
Speaker 2: Participate as long as they're not affiliated with the terrorist organizations.
Speaker 2: Like I said, this is about not about religion, this
Speaker 2: is about terrorism.
Speaker 4: Okay, very good.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you know, the other thing that
Speaker 1: you have been in the news about lately was your
Speaker 1: purchase of the ranch in New Mexico that was owned
Speaker 1: by Jeffrey Epstein. Tell us about the decision to buy
Speaker 1: that ranch.
Speaker 2: Sure, it's really nothing, Burger. The property was on the
Speaker 2: market for several years. South the Bees had it listed
Speaker 2: and then they they lost the listing and the Concierge
Speaker 2: auction company was going to auction the property, and so
Speaker 2: we decided to buy it and turn a place of
Speaker 2: darkness into a place of light, as simple as that.
Speaker 3: They assured me that the.
Speaker 2: Revenue and the money they were getting would go to
Speaker 2: the victims, and it did, and that's I was happy
Speaker 2: to help them out.
Speaker 3: And so that's the process.
Speaker 2: I was converting that ranch into a Christian retreat and
Speaker 2: and we had a lot of ideas to do it
Speaker 2: and how to do it, and so that's going ongoing,
Speaker 2: and that's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Have have you have the authorities asked to visit the ranch?
Speaker 1: Would would you make it available to them if they did?
Speaker 2: Of course, of course we would absolutely, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And I have no one ever asked to come out there.
Speaker 2: We asked people to come out, they assured me that
Speaker 2: they didn't need to. And so now that they you know,
Speaker 2: of three million pages being dropped, there's a lot more
Speaker 2: emphasis on that, and I get it.
Speaker 3: I mean I won't. I want the answers.
Speaker 2: And so the Attorney General's Office is out there and
Speaker 2: done their investigations and I wasn't there, but it's my
Speaker 2: understanding they haven't found anything, but they have complete free rank.
Speaker 2: Any law enforcement agency just they can come out there anytime.
Speaker 2: They won't and they have been and I'm I don't
Speaker 2: know if they will continue to, but that's up to them.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: Reminder for folks audience questions, If you have a question,
Speaker 1: you can submit it online. Are of insturrector Maddie Wallda
Speaker 1: is sending them to my phone. So if you look
Speaker 1: at me reading my phone. I'm not playing the world
Speaker 1: over here, I am. I'm looking at the questions. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go to audience questions right after this, but
Speaker 1: just one last question for you. If you win the
Speaker 1: general election, serve a four year term, and are at
Speaker 1: the end of that term and looking back, how will
Speaker 1: you define success?
Speaker 4: What will you what should we look at, what metrics?
Speaker 1: What anything should we should we viewed to say to
Speaker 1: decide whether don ha Fines was a successful.
Speaker 3: Controller delivering on my campaign promises.
Speaker 2: I don't make promises, I don't deliver, and it won't
Speaker 2: be from a lack of trying. And I've got a
Speaker 2: lot of those on the website and people expect me
Speaker 2: that to do that, and they trust me to do that,
Speaker 2: and that's what I'm gonna do. And a lot of
Speaker 2: that is making sure we're efficient in government and we
Speaker 2: root out fraud, wasting, abuse, and we hope people accountable.
Speaker 1: Excellent, Thank you, Okay, So let's go to some of
Speaker 1: your questions now. I'm going to ask from John in
Speaker 1: East Texas. He asks, what is your philosophy on broadband
Speaker 1: grants for closing the digital divide in Texas?
Speaker 2: Well, I can tell you there's I get a lot
Speaker 2: of comments from a lot of businesses and people about
Speaker 2: that that whole division.
Speaker 3: Now, you know, giving out the grants and things like that.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not there, so I can't answer it completely,
Speaker 2: but I think it needs to be looked at, and
Speaker 2: we need to make sure that rural Texans are good
Speaker 2: in the service they need and the original intent of
Speaker 2: the legislation. Federal money and the state money is being
Speaker 2: spent wisely and properly and effectively.
Speaker 3: That's the goal, do you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, there are a lot of grants that are
Speaker 1: issued through the Comptroller's office. Do you are there any
Speaker 1: that you feel like need to be cut? Is there
Speaker 1: a process that you would want to go through to
Speaker 1: review those?
Speaker 2: Well, I'll be doing a process to review everything.
Speaker 3: Everything.
Speaker 2: There's nothing off limits, and I think that's my job
Speaker 2: as chief financial officer. You know, if the state legislature
Speaker 2: or the federal government says this is going to be
Speaker 2: spent in this area, we're going to follow up on that.
Speaker 2: But I've got to be sure that it's being spent correctly. Again,
Speaker 2: that we're not just whimsically awarding contracts to these people.
Speaker 2: They're not The bid process isn't being handled correctly. We've
Speaker 2: got to make sure that it's done right.
Speaker 1: Excellent, Okay, let's see here. I want to ask this.
Speaker 1: This is from Renee in Austin, and I suspect maybe
Speaker 1: Renee might be a Comptroller's Office employee because she asks
Speaker 1: the comptroller employs a lot of folks. What sort of
Speaker 1: boss will you be? How will you maintain the good
Speaker 1: employee morale established under the Hagar administration?
Speaker 3: Well, team members.
Speaker 2: As a business person, having loyalty and a sense of
Speaker 2: a purpose with our team members, having an open door
Speaker 2: with the team members is huge.
Speaker 3: I'll be there every day.
Speaker 2: This is a six person I mean a six day job,
Speaker 2: ten hours a day, and I want to visit with
Speaker 2: the team members, talk to them and build up our morale.
Speaker 3: Because they need to know their purpose. Why are they there?
Speaker 2: I need to know that how are they accomplishing their mission?
Speaker 2: And I think it's going to be a great relationship
Speaker 2: with the team members in the Comptroller's Office because I
Speaker 2: know we're all working for the same goal.
Speaker 1: Cole from Round Rock asks in twenty twenty two, when
Speaker 1: running for governor, you told the Texas Nationalist Movement that
Speaker 1: you would support a referendum on Texas independence. Do you
Speaker 1: support Texas independence?
Speaker 3: I think people have a right to weigh in on this.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's you know how much much
Speaker 2: popularity it has, but I don't see any reason that
Speaker 2: people couldn't weigh in on it.
Speaker 3: People could have vote, but it's not it's not.
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not supporting necessarily succeeding from the nation. You know,
Speaker 2: Sam Houston didn't want to do that. He didn't like
Speaker 2: that idea and it didn't go good for Texas. So
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to repeat that at all. But I
Speaker 2: do like the fact that people have a voice and
Speaker 2: whatever it is that they want to have Texas do so.
Speaker 1: Thank you, John and Austin asks. Through rulemaking and policy,
Speaker 1: the Comptroller's office has long head a reputation for stretching authority,
Speaker 1: for stretching the authority the legislature intended or clearly authorized,
Speaker 1: leading to many lawsuits. What are your thoughts on addressing this?
Speaker 1: Do you agree with the premise of that question?
Speaker 3: Not that I've seen. I really don't.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen the contra I mean John Sharp, who
Speaker 2: I visited with last week, he didn't. We didn't talk
Speaker 2: about the litigation. Look, I'm sure there'll be litigation. I
Speaker 2: don't doubt that. That's why we need a really good
Speaker 2: ag But John told me that, you know, he saved
Speaker 2: four billion dollars when when the legislature really needed the money.
Speaker 2: And I think I can save a lot more than that.
Speaker 2: That was twenty five years ago. So how you do that?
Speaker 2: It might be overstepping some of the legislative authority, I
Speaker 2: mean what the comptroller has.
Speaker 3: Maybe not, but our goal is.
Speaker 2: To be efficient and that's what I'm going to do
Speaker 2: in save tax payer money.
Speaker 1: Excellent in your opinion, does the Comptroller have unilateral authority
Speaker 1: to eliminate initiatives, programs, or agencies that have been created
Speaker 1: and funded by the legislature?
Speaker 4: If so, under what circumstances.
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 2: It would depend. I don't think so. I don't think
Speaker 2: they liked it.
Speaker 4: All right.
Speaker 1: Sandy from McCallen asks, how do you plan to fund
Speaker 1: more TIFA students? TIFA being the Texas Education Freedom Accounts, vouchers, essays,
Speaker 1: or your incentives if you shift the agency's focus from
Speaker 1: audit auditing businesses, which can lead to less tax collection,
Speaker 1: to fund those new students or programs that come from
Speaker 1: the gr fund.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think I tend to increase the revenue
Speaker 2: for the State of Texas through spending and savings, right,
Speaker 2: And so I don't think not auditing the businesses is
Speaker 2: going to make it give us a decrease in our revenue.
Speaker 3: I really don't.
Speaker 2: Most businesses just want to pay the tax they owe
Speaker 2: and they want certainty in the process.
Speaker 3: They want clarity in the process.
Speaker 2: And uh, and so that's what I'm going to give them,
Speaker 2: clarity and certainty and then and we'll keep auditing businesses.
Speaker 3: There's no doubt. If you owe it, you need to
Speaker 3: pay it.
Speaker 2: But I think I can save a lot of money
Speaker 2: by auditing government, and that's going to increase.
Speaker 1: Our Do you do you think that those employees are transferable, Like,
Speaker 1: are those skills the same auditing you know, the businesses,
Speaker 1: in the in the government.
Speaker 3: You know, that's an interesting question.
Speaker 2: And uh, let's hope so we can train them to
Speaker 2: it is a different skill set, there's definitely it's a
Speaker 2: different skill set. But optimistic that they we can train
Speaker 2: those folks to do both.
Speaker 4: Okay, very good. A good question here. What do you
Speaker 4: make of Governor Abbott's performance?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: You know recently, and and and I was gonna say too,
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think your run for governor in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two had an impact on you know, as
Speaker 1: this question frames that pushing pushing him further to the.
Speaker 2: Right, I think, Uh, the governor's doing a good job now.
Speaker 2: I think he's doing a real good job on there.
Speaker 2: My campaign definitely had an impact on him.
Speaker 3: And also on the state.
Speaker 2: And everything I've campaigned for in my political career has
Speaker 2: an impact, you know, things I advocated for in the
Speaker 2: state Senate to things I had advocated on the campaign trail,
Speaker 2: it has an impact. And so but I think he's
Speaker 2: doing a good job right now, and I'm happy to
Speaker 2: work with him.
Speaker 1: If you're elected to control or do you view that
Speaker 1: as being your last stop and elected office?
Speaker 3: Well, I like to point this out.
Speaker 2: A lot of people run for controller and they won,
Speaker 2: and they all thought they were going to be something else, right,
Speaker 2: They all want to be governor, lieutenant governor. Not one
Speaker 2: controller has ever been governor in the history of Texas.
Speaker 2: Not only one's ever been lt and that was Bob Bullock.
Speaker 2: So it hasn't been a great stepping stone. There's no
Speaker 2: stone to step on. So we've only had twenty seven
Speaker 2: control in the history of Texas, so we've had more
Speaker 2: governors than we would control.
Speaker 1: Indeed, indeed, okay, so you've pledged, if elected, to downsize
Speaker 1: government and approve efficiency. Should see employees, particularly those in
Speaker 1: the Comptroller's office be concerned about potential staff reductions? Are
Speaker 1: you are you going to explore you know, when you
Speaker 1: step in, you know, reducing the size of the staff
Speaker 1: in that office.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's what do dan is about?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Can we get our work done with less people? That's
Speaker 2: what a good business person would always ask, right, you know,
Speaker 2: is you know, can we get this done with less
Speaker 2: people and spend less money?
Speaker 3: Do you know a I is coming? You know that's
Speaker 3: going to have a lot of impact.
Speaker 1: Do you expect, you know, if if you are elected,
Speaker 1: do you expect to come in with a plan for
Speaker 1: how that should look or is it going to take
Speaker 1: some time to sort of evaluate the you know, the
Speaker 1: lay of the land.
Speaker 3: Oh, definitely takes some time.
Speaker 4: Okay, very good.
Speaker 1: Let's see here the another audience question. Republicans have led
Speaker 1: Texas for roughly thirty years. Is it fair to say
Speaker 1: that any current waste and efficiencies in state government stem
Speaker 1: from Republican led priorities.
Speaker 3: Well, I like to use this metaphor.
Speaker 2: You know, we we all have garages and they get
Speaker 2: they just pile up. You know, everything gets put in
Speaker 2: the garage and this is the last thing you want
Speaker 2: to do. You don't want to take a weekend off
Speaker 2: cleaning and out and things like that. But it's our
Speaker 2: you know. But it still gets in there, and so
Speaker 2: I look at it. It's that's what I'm gonna do,
Speaker 2: clean out the garage. And everybody loves pulling in once
Speaker 2: it's cleaned out. And that's what we're gonna do. We're
Speaker 2: going to clean out the garage and get it done.
Speaker 1: That's that resonates as a as a homeowner with me
Speaker 1: in a very messy garage. So very good.
Speaker 4: Tell me just a little bit about your.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go big picture now if you're going into
Speaker 1: specifics your politicalhilosophy, like how did how did you come
Speaker 1: to believe what you believe about government and policy?
Speaker 2: Hmmm, well that's a that could be a ten minute
Speaker 2: discussion on that deal.
Speaker 3: But uh, let's just take it from this.
Speaker 2: What what is the role of government, what's the proper role,
Speaker 2: what's the end game. I always like to ask people,
Speaker 2: what's the end game? What is it you want? Where
Speaker 2: do you see government? What's the purpose of government? Why
Speaker 2: were we did our founders create us? How did they
Speaker 2: create what were they thinking? And the fundamental thing I'll
Speaker 2: tell you is that our liberties come from God, not
Speaker 2: the government. That's what makes us special, that's what makes
Speaker 2: us unique. And I wish everything I could get that
Speaker 2: lesson across to every elected office holder. The fundamental role
Speaker 2: of government's always to defend our God given liberties. Government
Speaker 2: never has enough of our money, and the more money
Speaker 2: they have, basically, the less liberty we're going to have.
Speaker 2: And Madison knew that, Jefferson knew that, and we don't
Speaker 2: want to forget it.
Speaker 3: I think it's critical that we.
Speaker 2: Always remember that, because the last government we have, the
Speaker 2: longer the government can survive.
Speaker 4: How did your experience in the Senate?
Speaker 1: How do you think that would shape you as someone
Speaker 1: in a state wide elected office?
Speaker 3: Well, as a business man. I went down there.
Speaker 2: To solve problems, and I realized that that's not always
Speaker 2: what members want to do, and often they create a problem,
Speaker 2: or they'll try to solve the symptom of the problem
Speaker 2: instead of the problem itself, and there's really no sense
Speaker 2: of urgency. I have a huge sense of urgency to
Speaker 2: get things done quickly.
Speaker 3: As a business person.
Speaker 2: We find a problem, we monetize the solutions, and we
Speaker 2: keep moving.
Speaker 3: I'm not a fan of committees.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people on different committees and volunteers
Speaker 2: across the state that serve the state of Texas.
Speaker 3: That's just not my leadership style.
Speaker 2: I'm not I'm a guy that's the buck stops on
Speaker 2: my desk and I'm gonna make the decision. I'm not perfect.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make mistakes, I'm sure of that, but I'm
Speaker 2: gonna own them, and we're going to learn from them,
Speaker 2: and we're going to move on. We're gonna move and
Speaker 2: we're going to keep moving with speed and efficiency and
Speaker 2: with a sense of purpose.
Speaker 3: And that's not how government operates. It just doesn't. They're
Speaker 3: not there to solve the problems. I was really surprised
Speaker 3: by that.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate you taking the time to speak with
Speaker 1: This has been an interesting conversation. I want to say
Speaker 1: thank you to all of our Tribute members who have
Speaker 1: been here and help support this event. Best of luck
Speaker 1: in the campaign and it's great talking with you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Matthew. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: H