Is a Texas DOGE Around the Corner?
On Saturday, August 1st, Don Huffines took the oath of office to become the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts,1 pledging to eliminate wasteful spending and deliver property tax relief to Texans. Huffines declined to take a salary for the position, saying “I did not come here for a paycheck. I’m here because I love Texas, and work for the people, not the government.”
Huffines was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott in early July after Kelly Hancock, who had served as acting comptroller, announced his resignation effective July 31st.2 Huffines had already secured the Republican nomination for the office3 outright in March, winning over 50% of the primary vote over Hancock and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. He will face Democrat State Senator Sarah Eckhardt4 in the November general election.
Background
A former state senator representing Dallas County, Huffines built his political reputation as one of the most conservative members of the Texas Senate and as the only legislator in state history to refuse a salary, pension, or perks while in office.
Huffines is perhaps best known for his fight to expose and shut down Dallas County Schools,5 a taxpayer-funded agency plagued by financial mismanagement and corruption. His campaign to abolish the agency ultimately succeeded, while a separate federal investigation into DCS resulted in multiple convictions for bribery, kickbacks and related crimes. Outside of politics, Huffines founded Huffines Communities,6 a major residential real estate development firm in North Texas.
The Office
The Comptroller’s office could be described as the financial command center of the state. It collects tax revenue, certifies the budget the Legislature can spend, manages state contracts, and produces the biennial revenue estimate that sets the ceiling on state spending. The office also now administers the new Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, the state’s $1 billion school choice initiative.7
Huffines campaigned heavily on what he calls “DOGE Texas,” a pledge modeled after the federal Department of Government Efficiency to audit state and local government,8 expose wasteful spending, and work to return savings to taxpayers through property tax relief. As part of that plan, Huffines has signaled he intends to shift comptroller auditors away from their traditional focus on business tax compliance and toward auditing government spending itself.
First Moves
Since being sworn in, Huffines has moved quickly to act on those promises.9
On August 4th, the Comptroller’s office announced in a press release10 that they would begin performance audits of the Comptroller’s office itself, in order to find inefficiencies and savings, with the review analyzing “all aspects of agency operations including business processes, vendor contracts and administrative structure measured against best practices in the private sector.”
In interviews since taking office, he has pledged aggressive audits of counties, cities, school districts, hospital districts, and special districts across the state, and said additional details on his plans would be rolling out in the days following his swearing in. He has also emphasized that supporting Governor Abbott’s property tax relief agenda will be his top priority heading into the next legislative session.
Spending restraint and rooting out waste is essential to produce real, measurable savings that make their way back into Texans’ pockets, and Huffines is moving swiftly to make headway on delivering.
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility relies on the support of private donors across the Lone Star State in order to promote fiscal responsibility and pro-taxpayer government in Texas. Please consider supporting our efforts! Thank you!
Get The Fiscal Note, our free weekly roll-up on all the current events that could impact your wallet. Subscribe today!
- https://comptroller.texas.gov/about/media-center/news/20260801-don-huffines-sworn-in-as-texas-comptroller-refuses-salary-calls-for-property-tax-relief-1785512488796 ↩︎
- https://texasscorecard.com/state/acting-comptroller-kelly-hancock-to-resign-at-end-of-july/ ↩︎
- https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/former-state-sen-don-huffines-wins-gop-primary-for-texas-comptroller ↩︎
- https://index.texastaxpayers.com/legislators/sarah-eckhardt/2025-index ↩︎
- https://texasscorecard.com/local/ex-head-of-dallas-bus-agency-pleads-guilty-to-3m-bribery-scheme/ ↩︎
- https://huffinescommunities.com/ ↩︎
- https://educationfreedom.texas.gov/ ↩︎
- https://donhuffines.com/texasmeansbusiness/ ↩︎
- https://comptroller.texas.gov/about/media-center/news/20260801-don-huffines-sworn-in-as-texas-comptroller-refuses-salary-calls-for-property-tax-relief-1785512488796 ↩︎
- https://comptroller.texas.gov/about/media-center/news/20260804-huffines-announces-performance-review-of-comptrollers-office-1785876225807 ↩︎
