The Democratic candidate in the Texas Comptroller’s race, Mike Collier, says poor forecasting is the reason the state had to cut school funding in 2011, adding that as the only Certified Public Accountant that is running in 2014, he's more qualified to be forecasting the state’s overall revenues and how the Legislature sets a two-year budget, than his opponent, Republican Glen Hegar.
Collier said, “Those forecasts, they are based on economic projections. I think the predecessor, [Susan Combs], the issue was she was not competent in those areas, and politically motivated. What matters is we have to ... do better, and your choice is to hire an incompetent politician or hire a financial professional who knows how to do this.”
Collier says Comptroller Susan Combs predictions were off by 20-billion dollars. Hegar said those two-year projections are difficult, and sometimes the numbers will be off.
“Forecasting two years out what the economy is going to do, you’re going to be off by a margin of error," Hegar said. "One thing that I want to make sure of is as those numbers change, I want to make sure we put the new numbers out as quickly as we can.”
Collier is hoping Hegar will debate him on the issues in the coming months like school funding, financial forecasting and paying off Texas' debts.
