Galveston treasurer’s job in hands of state’s voters
Every voter in Texas is about to have a say on the future of Hank Dugie’s job.
While the Nov. 7 elections mainly decide races for city councils and school boards, the ballot also will include a constitutional amendment on the existence of the Galveston County treasurer’s office.
In ballot Proposition 12, voters will be asked if the office should be eliminated.
And Dugie, the current county treasurer, wants them to say yes. So much so, that he’s already started reducing the role of the office.
“Everything that’s not required by state code, we’ve already started transitioning out,” Dugie said.
The election will potentially bring an end to the yearslong effort by the Galveston County Commissioners Court to eliminate treasurers. Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said he anticipated voters across Texas won’t fret too much about the office’s fate.
“I’m guessing they don’t care and they’re going to vote for it,” Henry said.
Galveston County officials have called the office unneeded and redundant. Henry had also publicly criticized the former Galveston County treasurer, Kevin Walsh, and other officials, after the county paid more than $525,000 to a scammer posing as a road contractor.
Dugie, a Republican and former League City councilman, last year ran a successful primary campaign against Walsh on the promise of abolishing the office. He was endorsed by most of the conservative leadership of the county.
After taking office, Dugie declined to take a salary but has continued to perform the duties of the office.
“I guess you could say at this point I do management of the staff and making sure that all the jobs and tasks are being performed,” Dugie said. “A lot of my job this year has been getting the issue on a ballot.”
In May, the Texas Legislature approved a resolution calling for the November vote. The resolution was approved by votes of 27-4 in the state Senate and 106-32 in the House.
The wide support was a reversal from the 2021 legislative session, when a similar resolution, opposed by Walsh, failed.
In April, Dugie and other county officials went to Austin to stump for a vote to be called. On the day the resolution was considered by the House committee on County Affairs, dozens of treasurers from across the state submitted public comments against the resolution, saying the position provides checks and balances to county finances.
On Monday, the president-elect of County Treasurers’ Association of Texas said the Galveston vote sets a “dangerous precedent” that other counties may follow.
“The county treasurer gives the people a voice in how county funds are spent,” said Ruben Cavazos, the county treasurer in Willacy County. “Shutting down the office means eliminating transparency, accountability and the separation of powers provided for in the Texas Constitution. It squashes the people’s voice.”
Dugie said the other treasurers’ opposition might have been borne out of self-preservation, but said he didn’t believe the treasurer needed to be abolished in every county in Texas. In Galveston, he said, the treasurer historically provided little oversight of finances.
“If they think this is an attack on their livelihood or their life’s purpose, I understand them being upset about it,” Dugie said. “This proposition has nothing to do with any other elected treasurer in the state. Do I think other counties might have waste in their treasurers office? Sure. But do I know enough about the other treasurer departments across to say one way or another? No.”
Dugie said eliminating the treasurer’s office would save Galveston County about $450,000 a year.
County treasurers are required by the Texas Constitution, but the document allows counties to abolish the position. Because the vote amounts to a change in the constitution, the abolishment must be approved by a majority in not only Galveston County, but across the state.
The vote isn’t unprecedented but is rare.
The treasurer’s office has also been eliminated in Andrews, Bee, Bexar, Collin, El Paso, Fayette, Gregg, Nueces and Tarrant counties; but the most recent abolishment came in 1987.
If the proposition passes, the office would be officially dead on Jan. 1, 2024, he said.
Election day is Nov. 7. Early voting begins Oct. 23