Keep Texas’ gold and our money at home

At first, it sounded like a wild idea: a Texas depository for gold bullion.

Now that idea is growing on us because of the state money — not gold, but currency — involved.

State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, proposed the depository last year, and his fellow lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott approved it.

Right now, Texas pays about $1 million a year to store its gold in New York. That money could stay at home.

The University of Texas Investment Management Company, which, as the name implies, controls investments for the University of Texas System, likewise spends about $650,000 a year to store gold at the HSBC Bank in New York. Keep it at home.

The bullion depository could hold deposits of gold and other precious metals owned by financial institutions, businesses, individuals, even foreign countries. The comptroller’s office is working with private investors who want to run it.

Capriglione told Star-Telegram reporter Anna Tinsley he hopes to see the depository opened late this year or early next.

This story was originally published May 18, 2016 at 9:13 AM with the headline "Keep Texas’ gold and our money at home."