CELINA, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott appointed former state Sen. Don Huffines as comptroller of public accounts on July 2, choosing the Dallas-area businessman to run the statewide office that collects taxes, disburses state funds and manages the Economic Stabilization Fund.
Celina, a Collin County city of roughly 20,000 residents, is located about 40 miles north of Dallas and has been among the fastest-growing small cities in Texas. The appointment fills a vacancy left by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who submitted his resignation the day before and will step down at the end of July.
Huffines, a Republican, co-founded Huffines Communities, a real estate development company in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He served one term in the Texas Senate from 2015 to 2019, representing District 16, and built a reputation as a fiscal conservative focused on government transparency. He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Texas at Austin.
"Don Huffines brings the right mix of business experience and conservative principles to this vital office," Abbott said in a statement. The governor cited Huffines' private-sector background and what he called a dedication to limited government as qualifications for managing the state's finances.
The comptroller's office occupies a central role in Texas government. It collects state taxes and fees, disburses state funds, manages unclaimed property and produces the revenue estimates that lawmakers rely on to write the state's two-year budget. Texas operates on a budget that exceeds $337 billion and takes in more than a quarter-trillion dollars in revenue annually.