Sid Miller is becoming rapidly the most talked-about Texas agriculture commissioner since, oh, perhaps Jim Hightower.

That’s really saying something.

Hightower used to make reporters laugh out loud with his jokes and quips when he led the TDA in the late 1980s. Miller is making some waves of his own now, but many observers aren’t laughing.

http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/01/sid-miiller-backed-then-nixed-ag-agency-remodel/

Miller is having to explain why he gripes about deep budget cuts while at one time supporting expensive renovations to his department’s offices in Austin. He requested the flashy improvements shortly after being elected in November, then pulled back on the request. According to the Texas Tribune: “According to agency spokesman Bryan Black, Miller halted the renovations after realizing the extent of the department’s financial woes. ‘After learning of the serious budget challenges facing the Texas Department of Agriculture, Commissioner Miller put a stop to renovations at the agency,’ Black said in an emailed statement. ‘Commissioner Miller is committed to being fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.’”

The Tribune reports further: “Among the requested items for Miller’s own office were 6-inch ‘hand scraped flooring,’ crown molding, indirect lighting, wooden blinds and custom ceiling tile. Items that don’t mention specific locations at the department’s Austin headquarters include a request for ‘office redesign/remodel, install shower’ and another order to remove carpet and replace it with tiles that resembled the ‘thin set terrazzo w/state or agency seal’ in the elevator lobby of the eighth floor of the Stephen F. Austin building.”

No one should expect our state officials to vow to work in squalid conditions … but holy mackerel!

Meanwhile, Commissioner Miller said deep budget cuts in previous legislative sessions have made it hard for the TDA to perform some of its core services, such as ensuring grocery store scanners work properly. Yet the commissioner wanted initially to gussy up his offices?

Let’s take a deep breath at the Texas Department of Agriculture.