(The Center Square) – Outgoing state Comptroller Don Huffines has called on the Trump administration to “audit every state and local government entity in Texas” after his office conducted an agency-wide performance review of the agency tasked with managing Texas’ finances.
Huffines is also butting heads with Austin ISD over an agency audit of the district after he lost his election.
The review of the Comptroller’s Office uncovered “what appears to be decades of systemic failures in the agency’s employment eligibility verification practices and its compliance with federal Form I-9 requirements,” Huffines said.
The I-9 form is required by federal law. The purpose of the form is to document that every new employee hired (citizen and noncitizen) is authorized to work in the United States, the Department of Homeland Security says.
The Comptroller’s office hasn’t been in compliance with the law, Huffines argues, stating that “problems may date back as far as 20 years and leave taxpayers facing approximately $5 million or more in federal civil penalties” for failing to “properly complete, verify, and retain the required federal hiring records.”
After the review, the Comptroller’s office hired independent outside legal counsel to conduct a full investigation. The investigation will assess existing processes, identify compliance gaps and recommend corrective actions.
He asked DHS to “review the employment eligibility of every government employee in Texas.” He also said the state “needs to pay its fines for violating federal I-9 requirements, just like every business has to. And every government entity out of compliance should be audited and pay up too.”
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Huffines to the position in August. He lost his election to Democrat state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, an attorney and former Travis County judge.
She is the second woman in state history to lead the agency, The Center Square reported.
Eckhardt is likely to continue auditing government agencies, which is one of her campaign pledges. She is not likely to work with DHS as she opposes Trump administration policies.
She is also expected to drop any agency audit of school districts.
Earlier this year, Abbott called for the Comptroller’s Office to audit four random school districts in an effort to identify wasteful spending and make schools more efficient.
The comptroller’s office picked four geographically diverse school districts: Austin, Barbers Hills, El Paso and Prosper independent school districts. Austin ISD has the most enrolled students of nearly 70,000, followed by El Paso’s 46,000, Prosper’s nearly 34,000 and Barbers Hill’s 8,000.
Comptroller staff conducted on-site evaluations and began reviewing district spending, focusing on compliance with state law. Evaluations are focused on taxpayer money being spent on students, classrooms and teachers compared to administrative bureaucracy. A final report will be presented to the legislature by the end of the year.
After the election, Huffines said Austin ISD was no longer cooperating. District leaders were “attempting to avoid scrutiny of how it spends local and state tax dollars by discontinuing cooperation in a performance review conducted by his office,” he said. “Taxpayers deserve to know if their tax dollars are being stolen or wasted on administrative bloat and luxury trips instead of educating students in the classroom.”
Prior to the election, Austin ISD was facing a state takeover due to years of failing grades. It also increased property taxes this year after facing a $181 million budget shortfall and closed 10 schools, The Center Square reported. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, a former Austin ISD board president, supported the tax increases.
Austin ISD’s general counsel pushed back on Huffines’ claims saying the district needed to understand the scope of the investigation.
General Counsel Kenneth Walker said the comptroller’s office requested the district’s “school library catalog, policies concerning human sexuality instruction” and data about how many students were enrolled or attending school using Social Security numbers or alternative identification numbers, the Austin-American Statesman reported. He also questioned site visits potentially violating federal student privacy protections.
Hinojosa is expected to reverse most of Abbott’s recent directives and policies. She has vowed to reform the Texas Education Agency and opposes state takeovers of public schools.
She and Eckhardt also oppose the state’s newly created Education Savings Account program, which is administered by the comptroller’s office. Eckhardt says she plans to audit the $1 billion program once she’s in office.
Days after the election, Democrats in the Texas House and Senate filed a bill to repeal the program.
This article was originally published by The Center Square and is republished under its open-access guidelines.