Austin School District Halts Cooperation With Comptroller’s Spending Review

The Austin Independent School District (ISD) has stopped cooperating with the state comptroller’s review of how it spends tax money, and Comptroller Don Huffines says the review will be finished without it. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” Huffines said in a statement Monday. “Our review will continue, and a full report will be published with or without your cooperation.”

The district gave notice Friday in a four-page letter from its general counsel, Kenneth Walker. “Consequently, we respectfully discontinue our participation and will not be available next week, November 9-13 for any site visits or interviews,” Walker wrote, according to Austin Current, whose story KUT published. State investigators did not arrive for the scheduled visit Monday, a district spokesperson confirmed to the outlet.

Huffines named four districts for the review on October 5: Austin, Barbers Hill, El Paso and Prosper. Gov. Greg Abbott requested it, and the comptroller’s office says it will publish the results by the end of the year so the Legislature can consider its recommendations, with any evidence of crimes referred to law enforcement. Site visits in the other three districts are complete, the office said. The first was in Prosper, as the Texian Partisan reported.

Walker’s letter disputes the comptroller’s power to question employees. The Tax Code directs the comptroller, on the governor’s request, to “investigate the books and accounts” of officers and others who handle public funds, and requires anyone “connected with the public service” to hand over its books and accounts “without delay.” The district argues that language does not clearly extend to interviews. It had expected investigators to question about 12 senior administrators, Austin Current reported; on November 5, the comptroller’s office named more than 32 employees it wanted to interview.

The district also questions what investigators asked for. Its letter lists requests for the library catalog and for the policies governing human sexuality instruction. Investigators also asked for student enrollment and attendance counts broken out by Social Security number and by a state alternative ID number. “The motivations for this investigation do not seem aligned with the statutory purpose,” Walker wrote. “Put differently, there is no clear scope.” He added that the December 31 deadline left no follow-up visits and no guaranteed chance for the district to answer findings before publication.

Huffines lost his election on November 3 to state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin. At her first news conference after the election, she said she would limit the reviews to school finances rather than library books and hiring policies, KERA reported, and her office pointed Austin Current to her pledge to “immediately curtail” them. Huffines is still in office, and the reviews are scheduled to be finished before she takes over. The district left open a return to the review if the comptroller’s office answers its concerns.

Huffines has said the report will come out by December 31 with or without Austin’s part in it. It will reach a Legislature that convenes in January, and a comptroller-elect who has said she would narrow the reviews to money.