Many city officials and leaders gathered in the Depot Civic and Cultural Center on Monday, as Texas Comptroller Susan Combs discussed economic and federal spending trends and how Texas is affected.

Combs is responsible for overseeing Texas' finances and Monday afternoon she offered insigh on how to control our future budgets.

The overall picture from the state comptroller: Texas is doing much better, financially, than many other states.

Combs says, "Have a good business climate, have a well trained, well educated workforce and have a legislature and other government entities that don't go on a spending spree that they can not sustain."

Michigan, California, Nevada, Illinois, and other states are struggling from sluggish industries, job losses, debt, and slumping real estate.

However, unemployment in Texas is lower, and consumer confidence has generally remaned higher.

"I think you have to say thank you to the texans who elect conservative folks to go to legislature, we're not going to run deficit spending, we're not allowed to, we won't do it," says Combs.

Combs points out Texas is the world's 12th largest economy.

Our challenges are typical year in and year out: droughts, public education, and medicaid all take a toll.

Combs was re-elected in 2010, and is in the middle of her four year term.

She says the people of Brown County can help their local economies simply by being active tax payers , buying locally, and by getting involved in public service.

Between April 2011 and April 2012, Texas added 225,800 non-farm jobs, a 2.1 percent increase.

Over the past year, Texas added jobs in 10 of the 11 major sectors including education and health services; leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation, and utilities; professional and business services; mining and logging; manufacturing; construction; financial activities; and information.