Texas Tribune: Comptroller Huffines' Financial Disclosure Omitted His Role at Firm That Lists SpaceX as an Investment

Texas Comptroller Don Huffines leads a Dallas private equity firm that lists Elon Musk's SpaceX in its portfolio. He did not put that role on the personal financial disclosure he filed with the state in February, the Texas Tribune reported.

State law requires candidates and elected officials to detail the executive roles they hold in businesses. Huffines has run the comptroller's office since July, when Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him after acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock stepped down. He won the Republican primary in March and faces Democrat Sarah Eckhardt in November.

The firm and the filings

Huffines Enterprises Science & Technology, or HEST, launched in 2022. It is tied to the real estate business Huffines founded with his twin brother Phillip, Huffines Communities, and its sister company Huffines Enterprises.

HEST's website lists SpaceX as one of nine companies in its portfolio. The private market tracker Pitchbook also shows the firm invests in SpaceX, though the amount is not public.

An archived copy of the HEST management page showed Huffines as president as of early February. His son Russell Huffines was listed as vice president. That page has been down since at least March, a few weeks after Huffines submitted his financial statement.

A state filing for the LLC, signed in September, after Huffines took office, lists him as manager. His son Colin Huffines is also listed as a manager.

The Huffines campaign did not respond to questions about whether he is still president or why the page was taken down.

Why SpaceX matters to this office

The comptroller is the state's chief financial officer. The job includes overseeing state contracts, collecting taxes and estimating state revenue.

Huffines' office administers two tax breaks worth more than $1 billion to SpaceX and an affiliate. Both were awarded before he took office.

The campaign's response

Campaign spokesperson and senior adviser Allen Blakemore said Huffines "holds no personal ownership interest in HEST or SpaceX, and has received no income from either entity."

A campaign statement also said that since taking office, Huffines has not approved, directed or influenced any incentive, grant or agreement.

That is the defense, and it rests on two points: no ownership and no income. Neither is the test the disclosure form sets. Ownership and income are not what the law asks about here. It asks about executive roles.

Texas law does not require a person to earn income from a business before listing it on a financial disclosure form. A 2023 legislative effort to overhaul the reporting rules included a provision limiting the requirement to compensated positions. It failed to pass.

That leaves the rule as written covering unpaid executive roles too. Whether Huffines' position at HEST counted as one on the date he filed in February is a question the campaign has not addressed directly.

What is on the record and what is not

The September state filing names Huffines as the manager of HEST. The campaign's statement says he has no ownership stake and has been paid nothing. Those two facts can both be true. A manager of an LLC does not have to be an owner.

No investigation, complaint or charge relating to the disclosure has been announced. The reporting does not say Huffines took any official action involving SpaceX.

The campaign has not said whether Huffines will amend his February disclosure, whether he still holds the president title, or why the management page came down.

Voters decide the comptroller race in November. The open question is whether Huffines amends the form to list the HEST role before then.