A state agency that invests Texas public money plans to pay $3 million to renovate the executive offices of Comptroller Don Huffines, records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show, drawing objections from his Democratic opponent as Huffines campaigns on cutting government waste.
The Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Co., which manages about $165 billion for state agencies, local governments and other public bodies, is listed as the funding source for the project in the Lyndon B. Johnson State Office Building in Austin, the Morning News reported Thursday.
The plans cover office space, conference rooms and a work cafe, and would keep an executive's private restroom, storage and break area.
The documents budget nearly $2.1 million for construction, $280,000 for architecture and engineering, $130,500 for project management and nearly $500,000 for contingencies. They do not say why the renovation is needed, what shape the current offices are in, why the trust company is paying or whether Huffines asked for the work, according to the newspaper.
The contract request was started Sept. 15, about six weeks after Huffines took office, and the records do not show whether the project was proposed before then.
The objections
Under state law, the comptroller is the trust company's sole officer, director and shareholder. State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin, the Democratic nominee for comptroller, called using the trust company's money "highly inappropriate."
"The comptroller is supposed to keep those funds segregated," she told the Morning News. "You can't raid it for operational expenses in the comptroller's office." She said Huffines should ask the Legislature if he wants a renovation.