ustxtxb_obs_1983_10_14_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

Bryant-Wilson Feud Mattox and the Kingfish In This Issue: .ar TEX,t i S ER-VIER October 14, 1983 A Journal of Free Voices 75C Shaking Up the Treasury By John Schwartz THE ANN RICHARDS Austin HEN ANN RICHARDS ran for treasurer in 1982, that office was as out of date as the Comptroller’s office had been in 1974, the year Bob Bullock began to change the face of Texas tax collection and to build a career on an office most people had forgotten. Ann Richards was watching. The Treasury handles the billions of dollars that fuel the state, depositing the money in banks and paying out the thousands of demands upon the state for benefits, construction contracts, and other activities. In 1982, the Treasury’s equipment was simply not up to the job. A walk through the office would show employees toting up figures on manual adding machines and relying on a 12-year-old computer system six years out of date when purchased. Records and warrants on paper filled whole musty rooms, giving the impression more of an archive than of a treasury. This was the information age, but the Treasury hadn’t heard the news. In an era of high-speed, lucrative money brokering, the Treasury rarely sought more intricate financial services than were available from a piggy bank. As outmoded as the physical facilities were, the Treasury philosophy was even further behind the times. For years, the