Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar received the 22nd annual Bob Bullock Award for Outstanding Public Stewardship at the Texas Digital Government Summit today at the Austin Club.
The Bob Bullock Award is presented each year to a Texas state executive or elected official for outstanding leadership innovation and a career that demonstrates continual dedication to serving Texas citizens. Bob Bullock was the Texas comptroller from 1975 to 1991. He also served two terms as lieutenant governor.
Im truly honored to receive this award which recognizes the efforts we at the Comptrollers office have made to put our own love for Texas into action" Hegar said. Our approach to every program and every new initiative is to ask Is it good for Texas? What would make it work even better for the people of this state? The answers to these questions guide our work to put Texans first with every decision we make."
Hegar was elected as the 36th Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts in November 2014. Upon taking office Hegar reorganized the agency for quicker and more effective decision-making and reduced its administrative footprint by working with the Legislature to eliminate inefficient programs and transfer others that didnt fit core missions. Additionally the comptroller recommended that the Legislature repeal eight taxes six of which were administered by the Comptrollers office.
Hegar oversees an agency that processed nearly 5.5 million tax returns in 2018 with more than 2.9 million filed electronically. The Comptrollers office also distributed 2.6 million checks totaling more than $28.8 billion in fiscal 2018 and transmitted more than 11.4 million direct deposit payments totaling more than $131.2 billion. Those funds included everything from employee payroll checks to child support payments and from taxpayer refunds to unclaimed property payments.
The Comptrollers website also has been overhauled since Hegar took office. Comptroller.Texas.Gov received enhanced search functions and was rebuilt to be as user-friendly as possible for taxpayers business owners researchers journalists and citizens. Before his election as Texas comptroller Hegar served in the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate where he worked on a wide range of common-sense solutions to problems affecting Texans in areas such as public education transportation tax reform government transparency Second Amendment rights water issues and tort reform. As chair of the Sunset Advisory Commission Hegar eliminated inefficiencies in state agencies and abolished six saving Texas taxpayers more than $160 million. In his last session as a state senator Hegar oversaw state and local revenue matters and helped cut $1 billion worth of taxes
