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May 04, 2006
Rebuke For Doing The Right Thing
In today's Chronicle, Clay Robison reports that the Republican Texas State Comptroller (who is also an independent gubernatorial hopeful), Carole Keeton Strayhorn, was admonished by State Attorney General Greg Abbott yesterday for investigating the Texas Residential Construction Commission and recommending that it be abolished.
Strayhorn was apparently asked by a legislator (State Senator Todd Simth) to compare the agency's complaint process with those in other states, and to determine if the commission discouraged good home building. She conducted her investigation and presented her report in January, finding that the agency "was nothing more than a builder protection agency." She recommended that the commission be blasted "off the bureaucratic books."
Abbott ruled that Strayhorn did not have the authority to conduct the investigation without the Governor's approval -- ah, there's the rub. Strayhorn, for her part, was unapologetic after Abbott's ruling.
This commission, who's members are appointed by the Governor, has been stacked with building industry cronies and has effectively denied Texans' ability to seek legal recourse when they purchase a shoddily constructed new home. The TRCC is just one example of the all-out assualt on the little guy that has been legislated by the Texas Republican Party in the last few years.
Abbott's ruling is nothing more than a slap on the wrist legally, since the investigation has already been completed and its findings presented. This was just politics by the Governor's office -- about the only thing they're good at up there.
Posted by houtopia at May 4, 2006 08:59 AM