New disclosures show Texas Sen. Royce West making big bucks from government contracts

For years, state Sen. Royce West has raked in millions in legal fees representing governmental entities such as the Dallas and Houston independent school districts, metropolitan transportation agencies and major Texas cities, sparking criticism that he is using his influence as a state lawmaker to score business deals average citizens can’t get.

Until now, it was nearly impossible for voters to quantify the number of governmental contracting deals or estimate how much he’s personally making from his private business interests.

But because he’s running for the U.S. Senate, a federal office that requires far more robust disclosure than the state of Texas, the Dallas Democrat is finally pulling back the curtain on his considerable wealth. A recently implemented tweak to state ethics rules also requires him to provide more detail than ever about his government contracts.

In a U.S. Senate campaign disclosure filed last month, which includes all of 2018 and this year through mid-August, West reported that he made over $1 million in earned income, and that he’ll be eligible to draw a state pension exceeding $80,000 a year — or more, depending on when he retires.

West also reported drawing down more than $40,000 from the state in wages — well beyond the $7,200 yearly base salary he makes as a part-time state legislator — which likely would take into account per diem allowances paid during the 2019 legislative session, assuming West adhered to the reporting period spelled out in Senate Ethics Committee online guidance.

All told, the value of the assets he and his wife own — which include an investment in a tax consulting firm that business records show is jointly managed by West and Republican megadonor G. Brint Ryan’s company — are worth between $8.7 million and $28 million, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of the report. The Wests earned between $300,000 and $2.3 million from those assets for the reporting period, the analysis shows.

Emails and messages left for West's state Senate and campaign offices went unanswered, and West declined comment.

Voters were never able to get those kinds of basic details from the disclosures the longtime senator — or any other Texas lawmaker — has had to file under lax state ethics laws. But the state disclosure West filed this year does contain fresh details about his government work, thanks to a reform championed in 2017 by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake. It took 18 months for the bill to take effect, but now Texas lawmakers and major appointed officials must reveal high-value contracts they have with governmental entities.

West lists contracts between his law firm and seven public entities: the public school districts of Houston, Dallas and Crowley; the cities of Houston and Fort Worth; Houston’s Metropolitan Transit Authority; and the Sunbelt Freshwater Supply District in Houston.

He also reports serving, via his law firm, as bond counsel for multiple governmental entities, including Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Dallas County Community College, the North Texas Tollway Authority and several school districts and cities.

When interviewed about his government contracts in the past, West has dismissed concerns about any conflicts of interest, saying he makes it clear to entities that hire him that they are talking to him in his capacity as a private lawyer, not as a state lawmaker.

"I tell people all the time, 'When you come into this office, you're seeing me as an attorney,'" West told the Dallas Observer in 2007. The writer took note of a “State Senator Royce West” nameplate in that same office, in full view of potential customers.

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said West’s dealings with public entities are rife with conflict because as a state senator he can “directly or indirectly influence the amount of money or policies that affect these organizations.”

The governmental entities might then feel pressured to hire or keep him because his influence can cut both ways, Jones added.

“On the one hand, they can effectively, by paying him money, they can get benefits. On the other side, by cutting their contracts with him, they could set themselves up to lose benefits,” Jones said. “What I think is clear here is the taxpayer probably loses because decisions are perhaps not being made on what’s best policy but what’s best for the legislator’s personal income.”

The business deal between West and Ryan’s company might come as a surprise to Democratic primary voters in the increasingly crowded contest to take on GOP Sen. John Cornyn.

Ryan is a multi-millionaire Dallas tax consultant and CEO of Ryan LLC. He and his company’s political action committees have poured millions into the coffers of state and federal campaigns and political causes — mostly benefiting GOP candidates — including over $100,000 to the Republican National Committee and the party’s congressional fundraising arm since Donald Trump was elected president, according to state and federal filings.

Ryan also served as a tax adviser to Trump during the 2016 campaign and his company paid the $100,000 fee for Donald Trump Jr.’s controversial 2017 speech at the University of North Texas, where Ryan serves on the system’s board of regents, according to published reports. Ryan’s state PACs have given West at least $37,000 for his Texas Senate campaigns since 2006, state filings show.

West reported a 40 percent stake in RyanWest LLC, which touts itself as a minority-owned company. As a partner in the firm, he also reported receiving $20,800 over the period covered by the federal report. It’s not clear who else has an ownership stake in the firm.

State business records list Brint Ryan’s company, Ryan LLC, as a manager of RyanWest LLC. Brint Ryan did not return phone calls from The Texas Tribune. Ryan LLC’s latest business filing on file with the state comptroller does not list the company as a subsidiary, and Ryan discloses no business interest in it on his 2019 state ethics disclosure. Messages left with the president of RyanWest LLC, Gwendolyn Evans, also went unanswered.

There are unexplained discrepancies between what’s reported on the senator’s federal disclosure statement and the one he filed at the Texas Ethics Commission. Nowhere on West’s 2019 state ethics report does it show the business interest he reports as a U.S. Senate candidate in RyanWest LLC., even though state lawmakers generally have to disclose investments in business entities.

Nor is it clear why West reported multiple contracts and bond lawyer deals worth over $25,000 each to the Texas Ethics Commission, but then did not name all of those clients on the federal form that asked him to detail any compensation of “more than $5,000 from a single source in the two prior years.” West’s reported debts don’t all line up on both reports, either.

West, his campaign and state Senate office have not responded to requests by the Tribune to explain the differences in the two reports. After participating in a Democratic press conference on mass shootings at the Texas Capitol Wednesday, West declined comment, saying: “You’ve never been fair to me.”

The federal disclosure requirements open a burst of sunlight on West’s finances after years of relative darkness. For example, the state disclosure form asks Texas lawmakers to specify the sources of their occupational income, but unlike under federal rules, don’t require them to give the amount.

And outdated reporting ranges for monetary values end at “$25,000 or more” on Texas ethics forms, so there would be no way to distinguish between an asset worth $26,000 and one worth $26 million, for example. On federal forms, the ranges top out at a maximum possible value of $50 million — two hundred thousand percent higher.

Texans learned the stark difference between the state and federal reporting requirements when former Gov. Rick Perry ran for president and then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst ran for Senate.

As a presidential candidate in 2011, Perry disclosed that he was double-dipping state pay — collecting both a salary and a pension — which eventually prompted the Legislature to ban future politicians from doing the same. State forms don’t require Texas politicians to disclose pension benefits.

The following year, voters finally learned that their lieutenant governor — who had listed his assets in the "$25,000 or more” category on state forms — was actually worth an estimated $200 million or more. Dewhurst also had to provide details about his assets and investments that the state didn’t ask him for.

In 2008 — long before his U.S. Senate run prompted more transparency — Dewhurst bristled when an Associated Press reporter asked him how much he was worth and whether he would release his tax returns.

"Do I look stupid today?" the lieutenant governor said. "In Texas we have a long tradition of not talking about the number of cattle you own or your net worth."

Disclosure: Rice University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.