Comptroller did not disclose his role managing firm investing in SpaceX

By Taylor Goldenstein

Among his other roles, Texas Comptroller Don Huffines serves as a leader of a venture capital firm that touts Elon Musk’s SpaceX as one of the companies it invests in.

But he never disclosed this arrangement on the state-required personal financial disclosure form he filed in February, even as state law requires candidates and elected officials to detail the executive roles in businesses they hold.

The comptroller’s office — that Huffines has helmed since July, while he runs for a full term — administers two tax breaks worth more than a billion dollars to SpaceX and its affiliate. Those were awarded before Huffines took office.

Launched in 2022, Huffines Enterprises Science & Technology, or HEST, is a Dallas-based private equity investment firm. HEST is connected to the real estate empire Huffines and his twin brother Phillip founded called Huffines Communities and its sister company Huffines Enterprises.

A state filing for Huffines Enterprises Science & Technology, LLC signed in September after Huffines took office, listed him as its manager, according to records from the comptroller’s office. His son, Colin Huffines, is also listed as manager on the filing.

A page on the HEST website listing the firm’s management team featured Huffines as the president as of early February, according to a website archive. But that page of the website has been down since at least March, a few weeks after Huffines submitted his personal financial statement to the state to run for office. Another son, Russell Huffines, was listed as vice president. (A spokesperson for the Huffines’ campaign did not respond to questions about whether Huffines is still president or why the web page is no longer live.)

The company’s website lists SpaceX as one of nine companies that are part of its portfolio. The private market tracker Pitchbook also notes that the firm invests in SpaceX, however, the amount is not publicly available.

Huffines won the Republican primary for the comptroller seat in March and is on the November ballot against Democrat Sarah Eckhardt. Gov. Greg Abbott appointed him in July to serve in the interim, after acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock stepped down.

The comptroller is the state’s chief financial officer and is responsible for overseeing state contracts, collecting taxes and estimating state revenue, among other fiduciary duties.

Huffines 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.”

State law has no requirement that a person must earn income from a business to include it on state financial disclosure forms. In fact, a legislative effort in 2023 to overhaul personal finance disclosure reporting included a provision to limit this requirement to only include compensated positions. It failed to pass.

“Since taking office, Comptroller Huffines has not approved, directed, or influenced a single incentive, grant, or agreement for any entity with which he has any financial involvement,” Blakemore said. “Full stop.”

Blakemore emphasized that all the incentives SpaceX has received were approved before Huffines’ swearing in.

Beyond the initial approval, the comptroller’s office continues to play a significant role in overseeing incentives, monitoring compliance and leveling penalties or revoking agreements if awardees fail to meet requirements, according to state law governing the tax break programs.

Andy Cates, a political lawyer and ethics expert, said the timing of the SpaceX agreements being approved is “irrelevant” to Huffines’ responsibility to disclose.

“Being manager of a family firm is still a holding that requires disclosure, no matter if the impact predates your tenure or not,” he said.

Cates said the purpose of the financial disclosure forms — which also ask officials and candidates to list their income, liabilities and investments — is to allow citizens to know about officials’ business interests so they can evaluate where there might be conflicts of interest.

“It only serves to continue eroding trust in elected officials if they fail to disclose all of the necessary information that a person would need,” Cates said, adding that there have been so many recent instances of politicians’ failing to include information on these forms, the public is already highly skeptical.

“If they leave it off, the [public’s] presumption at this point is not that it was a mistake,” he said. “The presumption is that it was intentional, and they’re trying to hide something.”

The comptroller’s office — under Hancock — approved eight tax incentive agreements with TeraFab AI, LLC, a special-purpose entity linked to SpaceX. Musk, the SpaceX CEO, has said the 100-million-square-foot facility — equivalent to about 1,700 football fields — will be the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in the world. The project, a collaboration among SpaceX, xAI and Tesla, gets its name from Musk’s ambition of producing 1 terawatt of computing power.

The comptroller’s office in June recommended the company receive the Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act incentive, agreeing with the company that without it, TeraFab would likely relocate to Arizona.

Altogether, the state will exempt TeraFab from paying nearly $1.7 billion in local school maintenance and operations taxes through 2046, if all four phases are built, after concluding that the revenue the project would bring over the next 20 years would offset it.

SpaceX is also set to receive funds from Texas’ Enterprise Zone Program, which provides breaks for companies that create jobs in economically distressed areas. The award predates Huffines. The program is overseen by the governor’s office and administered by the comptroller’s office.

Three SpaceX projects, including for Starbase, the city created and run by employees, and an expansion of its Starlink tech campus in Bastrop County, have been approved by the governor’s office for up to $11.25 million in tax breaks, according to state data. The first two were approved in late 2025, and the third was approved in June, a month before Huffines was sworn in.

SpaceX representatives did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

There are seldom consequences for omitting information on a personal financial disclosure form, Cates said. The state’s disclosure law makes it a crime to knowingly fail to file one, but not to leave something off. State law also does not contain an automatic civil or criminal penalty for omissions, though any Texas resident can file a sworn complaint that the agency will then investigate. If the agency ultimately finds a violation, they can dismiss or impose a fine.

One of the highest penalties the commission has ever levied – $100,000 – was against Criminal Court of Appeals Judge Sharon Keller for failing to include several sources of income on her forms over about four years.

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.