Susan Combs

Susan Duran Combs (born February 1, 1945) is the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, having been elected on November 7, 2006, as a Republican, to succeed Carole Strayhorn, who ran unsuccessfully for governor as an Independent in the same election.

The comptroller is the state's chief financial officer. She manages the state’s treasury operations, monitors the state's fiscal health, guides legislative decision makers by estimating state revenues and ensures state taxes are collected fairly and efficiently to fund vital programs and services for the people of Texas. The position of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts includes most of the duties of the former state treasurer, a position abolished by Texas voters in 1996.

Prior to her tenure as comptroller, Combs served two terms as Commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture from 1999-2007, taking the reins as the first woman elected to the office. Combs also served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives.

Background

Combs was born in San Antonio and grew up in a ranching family from West Texas. She runs a cow-calf operation on her family's ranch in Brewster County, the same ranch owned by her great-grandfather more than a century ago. She lives in Austin with her husband, Joe, a computer-scientist, and is the proud mother of three sons.

Combs graduated from Vassar College, majoring in French and religion, and worked in international advertising in New York, in the financial markets on Wall Street and for the federal government before returning to Texas to obtain her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law. After graduation, Combs served as an assistant district attorney in Dallas, prosecuting child abuse cases, where her performance as a tough prosecutor earned her widespread respect.

To begin her political career, Combs served two terms in the Texas House of Representatives from 1993-1996, where she vigorously defended landowners' property rights and successfully sponsored and passed the state’s landmark private property rights legislation. She also authored tort reform legislation vital to the state’s business community and worked to rewrite the Juvenile Justice Code in 1995. Furthermore, she pushed legislation to establish an accountability system for our state’s public schools, as well as legislation to make state agencies more fiscally responsible. She served on the House Natural Resources Committee during those terms and has significant expertise in water rights and related issues.

She joined the staff of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) in 1996 as the senator's state director.

Combs serves on the boards of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Texas Wildlife Association. She has also served on the boards the Texas Beef Council and the Texas Production Credit Association.

Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (2007 – Present)

In her focus on the future of Texas, Combs has released several vital reports on statewide trends, including: Texas in Focus: A Statewide View of Opportunities, which looks at issues affecting economic growth across the state; The Energy Report, the first of its kind in the nation providing a comprehensive assessment of Texas energy options to guide future decisions; and Counting Costs and Calories — Measuring the Cost of Obesity to Texas Employers, a comprehensive account of just how severely the costs of obesity affect Texas employers. According to the report, obesity cost Texas businesses an estimated $3.3 billion in 2005 and could cost employers $15.8 billion annually by 2025 if the trend continues unchecked.

Combs continues to push for economic development and launched the Texas Ahead Web site in May 2008 as a one-stop portal to give businesses, global partners and local governments a wealth of economic development tools and resources. Because the Texas of tomorrow relies on an educated work force, Combs also established a new division within her agency to oversee educational opportunities and investments. Combs believes in every chance for every Texan to succeed by providing the tools to help fund the education needed for skilled, high-paying positions.

Government transparency

Led by Combs, Texas has increasingly found itself in the national spotlight for its innovative e-government initiatives. The Lone Star State has set the national standard in spending transparency thanks largely to Combs’ leadership and commitment to open government. The Comptroller has spearheaded unprecedented efforts to give taxpayers a transparent look at how their dollars are spent in support of the belief that government must be fully accountable to the people it serves.

Although Texas has many transparency accomplishments to its name, one of its most prominent is the Comptroller’s online portal for state expenditures, Where the Money Goes. Launched in October 2007, this site offers users a free, searchable database of all state agency expenditures. The portal has received numerous accolades for its searchability, intuitive design and level of detail, which is so extensive, users can access spending data down to the pencil. The Web site features a virtual check register and spending information for all state agencies, offering the public online access to detailed and up-to-date expenditures. Recognized for “Best Technology Solution Serving the Public” by the Center for Digital Government, Where the Money Goes has earned national recognition as the example of transparency for government at all levels to follow.

Under Combs' leadership, the Comptroller’s office has implemented a sweeping range of business process improvements and identified $8.7 million of efficiencies and savings to reinvest in meeting increased demand for services. Of these savings, $4.8 million have already been realized, with an additional $3.8 million expected in the coming year. Some examples of the cost savings at the Comptroller’s office include saving $73,000 by consolidating multiple contracts for toner cartridges and establishing separate post office boxes to receive different types of tax payments, thereby avoiding having to spend $328,000 to buy and maintain a new mail sorter. These savings allow the agency to strengthen core functions without requesting additional funding from the Legislature. Combs is also directing a comprehensive study of ways to integrate data across Texas state government to make processes and systems more uniform and efficient.

The bottom line for Combs is that transparency forces government to be smarter about how it spends the taxpayers’ money and guards against waste. Taxpayers expect and deserve this level of openness because it's their money. Taxpayers are getting involved in state government and holding agencies more accountable to the public, and Where the Money Goes is critical in deciding whether tax dollars are being spent in a responsible manner.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner (1999 – 2006)

Prior to her election as Comptroller, Combs won back-to-back elections in 1998 and 2002 to serve as Texas Agriculture Commissioner and built a strong record of fiscal conservatism as an innovator in public policy. She lowered her agency’s budget by 18 percent without reducing essential services and trimmed staff while taking on more responsibility. She also re-engineered the Texas Department of Agriculture’s electronic information systems for greater efficiency and improved the process of issuing licenses and regulating thousands of businesses across the state.

During her tenure, Combs focused on marketing Texas agricultural products and led the agency to create the unparalleled GO TEXAN campaign, the most comprehensive marketing plan for Texas-made products ever launched. She introduced innovative programs and competitive grants to boost economic development and ignite revitalization efforts across the state. Her unprecedented effort to promote tourism in small towns throughout Texas resulted in measurable revenue increases for those areas, and her award-winning marketing programs have become a huge benefit to participants who have experienced increased sales. Combs’ programs have helped to create and retain job opportunities for thousands of Texans while building a stronger economy for the state. With a special emphasis on rural Texas, her efforts helped to create and retain jobs for thousands of Texans, in turn building a stronger economy for the state.

Agriculture and good nutrition go hand in hand, and Combs has long served as an advocate of a healthy food environment for Texas schoolchildren. To help combat the alarming trend of childhood obesity, Combs took the lead in promoting healthy nutrition, and her work to ensure Texas students had access to healthy food at school served as a national model for other states to follow.

Awards

As Comptroller, Combs won the Realtor Legacy Award for demonstrating the highest level of leadership support to Texas property owners and the Trailblazer Award from the Independent Bankers Association of Texas for support of the independent community banking industry.

Combs has also received wide recognition for her work in the fight against obesity. Combs won the inaugural Leadership Award in Obesity Prevention in 2008 from The Michael & Susan Dell Center for the Advancement of Healthy Living.

In March 2006, while working as the Texas Agriculture Commissioner, the American Medical Association presented Combs with the Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service, the highest award the AMA can bestow on a public official, for her leadership in tackling the state’s obesity crisis and championing a groundbreaking public school nutrition policy to address it. The Governor’s Commission for Women inducted Combs into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 2004 for her dedication and commitment to providing healthy food for Texas schoolchildren and for her high-profile efforts to enhance rural economic development. That same year, Combs was invited to participate in the Time-ABC News Summit on Obesity, where she was recognized for her work on childhood nutrition and named as one of six national heroes in the fight against obesity.

In recognition of her work for the agriculture community, The Progressive Farmer magazine named her Leader of the Year in Texas Agriculture for 2002.

External links

• Window on State Government
• Where the Money Goes
• Texas Transparency Check-Up

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[[Category:Members of the Texas House of Representatives