Abbott Brings $1 Billion in Gold Reserves Back to Texas

Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 483 into law last Friday, allowing the State to set up a gold depository and bring its $1 billion in gold bullion back to Texas. The gold, which is part of the University of Texas’ endowment fund, is currently stored in a vault located in the basement of HSBC in New York City.

“I signed HB 483 to provide a secure facility for the State of Texas, state agencies and Texas citizens to store gold bullion and other precious metals,” Abbott said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “With the passage of this bill, the Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.”

The bill does much more than simply save the $1 million per year storage fee being paid to the bank. It establishes the only state run depository, payments system and safe haven for gold that cannot be confiscated by the federal government. The new payment system, according to an article on Talking Points Memo (TPM), will allow businesses, other state agencies and individuals a secure place to store gold, silver, platinum, palladium and rhodium deposits and then be able to make electronic transfers from those assets – “one that will create a metal-backed money supply intended to rival the paper currency issued by the Federal Reserve,” TPM wrote.

“We are not talking Fort Knox,” State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione (R-Southlake) said in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “But when I first announced this, I got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold … in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.”

Capriglione authored HB 483. This was his second attempt to push the legislation through the system having failed in 2013. The House passed the bill by a vote of 140-4.

State Senator Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) sponsored the bill through the Senate Chamber, where it passed by a vote of 27-4. “Texas agencies and institutional investments are currently held, in large quantities, out of state. This bill offers those agencies and institutions and opportunity to locate their assets in Texas which enhances security and management of this wealth,” said Kolkhorst. “Texas is uniquely positioned as a state, both geographically and economically, to take advantage of this opportunity.”

The depository will be built at no cost to the taxpayers of Texas. It will be administered by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

The Tea Party Economist called the move a “Game Changer.” The article, written by precious metals dealer Franklin Sanders from Tennessee, says Capriglione learned his lessons well from 2013. Sanders said this bill has “everything.”  He then went on to list what he meant by “everything”:

1. No talk of doom, gloom, and end of the world. Rather, a plan for a step forward into the financial system of the future. Building the future, not complaining about the present. Forget all that, sidestep it and build the future.
2. A guard against confiscation. Oh, you think, that won’t do any good. Think again: it’s Texas. If anybody would stand up to the Feds, it’s Texas.
3. Payment Provision. Account to account transfers. Yes, you can pay gold, silver, platinum, palladium or rhodium into another account holder’s account. Electronically, no doubt.
4. Check writing. Yes, you can write a check against your account to pay metals to the bearer, or, I believe, to pay a Yankee dollar equivalent.
5. A statewide network of depository agents. Spread out across the countryside like Western Union. In every dusty hamlet.
6. NO hypothecation. No derivatives, no futures, no delayed delivery, none of that hocus-pocus that New York & London feed off of. Hard metal in hand.
7. Official exchange rates. Requires the comptroller to publish official exchange rates for precious metals transaction into Yankee dollars and other currencies, discoverable at all times to all participants.
8. In sum, this establishes a state-wide gold and silver bank for payments and storage.

TPM says other gold enthusiasts are blowing the “secessionist dog whistle.”

“If the Fed gets too carried away with its digital money printing, then Texas will already have some kind of system to work off of in terms of not using the dollar. I’m not saying it will come to this, but it is symbolic in retaining some liberty, similar to gun ownership in this country. It is not something that will likely be used against a tyrannical government because the symbolism itself keeps tyranny in check,” writes Geoffrey Pike at Wealth Daily.

Read more about the potential impact of this new Texas Gold Reserve in TPM’s in-depth article.

Bob Price is a senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and on Facebook.