The Statesman continues its early work on endorsements with a solid recommendation for Democratic Comptroller candidate Mike Collier.
Mike Collier
The deplorable revenue forecast issued ahead of the 2011 legislative session by the current comptroller, Republican Susan Combs, who’s retiring from politics, contributed to an unnecessary $5.4 billion cut to public education. Combs’ estimate – she was off by $11.3 billion, one of the worst misses in state history – motivated Collier to run.
Collier, 53, is the former chief financial officer of a Houston-based energy company and a former partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He has no previous political experience, though steering complicated projects through the huge bureaucracy of an international accounting firm with 180,000 employees requires its own set of political skills. He is a graduate of Georgetown High School in Williamson County and received his undergraduate and master of business administration degrees from the University of Texas.
Though he faces the usual long odds of any Democrat running for statewide office in Texas, Collier is a dynamic candidate. Engaging, enthusiastic and clearly knowledgeable of the duties of the office he seeks, he is a natural communicator with a winning sense of humor. The Texas Democratic Party could use more candidates like him.
Collier sees the comptroller’s office as “an exciting management challenge” that fits best with his focus on performance, not on, say, social issues that he says freeze too many voters in place. One of his main ideas for reforming the agency is to issue quarterly revenue estimates. Such estimates, he says, will improve the comptroller’s accuracy and timeliness, remove political agendas and make a huge difference in how the Legislature does its job.
The comptroller may not be as well-known a state official as the governor, or even lieutenant governor, but the comptroller still has a bully pulpit of sorts, Collier says, and he plans to use it to persuade counties to improve their property tax appraisals. He also wants to establish an ongoing dialogue with taxpayers about the state’s fiscal health and properly funding public education. And he says he’d lobby lawmakers to revive the comptroller’s ability to conduct performance reviews – accountability audits of state agencies to identify possible savings and improve the state’s finances.
As I noted with the Statesman’s endorsement of Sam Houston, I expect Collier to get the lion’s share of endorsements from the papers. Maybe not all of them, as he’s a first time candidate who speaks his mind directly, but any he does lose won’t be because he isn’t the better-qualified candidate. Having recently had the opportunity to interview him, I can confirm the Statesman’s assessment of him and his capabilities. I’ll say it again, on the merits and on their accomplishments and experience, the overall statewide Democratic ticket wipes the floor with the Republicans in a way that we haven’t seen since at least 1994, the last year we won something at the top. I’ll take all the good omens I can get. Look for my upcoming interview with Collier and be sure to give it a listen. If you don’t know much about the guy now, you’ll like what you hear.