Panel fines 48 builders for registration failures
The Texas Residential Construction Commission has fined 48 Texas builders, including two in San Antonio, for failing to renew their state registrations on time.  See related article and TRCC press release.

Houston Chronicle's Rick Casey - Proposal: A $1 million recusal rule
Take the case of Attorney General Greg Abbott. Last Dec. 15 he received $100,000 in campaign contributions from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry and his wife... Perry and his allies in the homebuilding industry worked hard to obtain the commission as a partial shield against lawsuits... Still, it hardly inspires confidence for the attorney general to accept a hundred grand from an interested party on the eve of entertaining a request to rule on an issue of considerable interest to that party. In addition, five days after sending his request to Abbott, Swinford received his first contribution from Perry, for $2,000. Six weeks later he would receive another $10,000... But the notion that the attorney general can take $100,000 from someone with a direct interest in his ruling is outrageous.  And it's actually worse. Since 2001, Abbott has received $1.1 million from Mr. and Mrs. Perry...

Agency has many ties to builders

Consumer groups see the Texas Residential Construction Commission as a puppet of the Texas Association of Builders. The TAB says its interest is simply participation in government, taking advantage of opportunities available to any citizen. But thousands of pages of documents released over the past several months show the keen interest of builders' groups in the agency's workings. Most of the documents came from the state comptroller's office, which conducted an inquiry into the TRCC at the request of state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless.... Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, introduced a bill last year that would have made the TRCC free to homeowners, required continuing education for builders and allowed the commission to take action against builders who abandoned jobs... "It's the fox guarding the henhouse," Farrar said... See related Reports: Texas Comptroller Condemns TRCC Builder Protection Agency &  WFAA News 8 Report - $1,000 Lunch Scandal

Angry homeowners contend that state agency, complaint process are tilted toward builders"
There are so many problems with the legislation that passed in 2003 it would take us hours to enumerate them," said Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, an Austin-based consumer-advocacy group. "We need real protections for homeowners so that when they buy a home they know that what they are getting is built to high-quality standards and if it's not, the builder will be held responsible for it." ...State Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, asked the state comptroller's office to look into the agency's effectiveness last year. He said a lot of homeowners have wasted their time and money going through the agency. With the TRCC, consumers face a bureaucratic maze to find their way through before they have an opportunity to hold their builder accountable," Winslow of Texas Watch said. Janet Ahmad of San Antonio, president of Homeowners for Better Building, said the TAB devised the TRCC to create "an ironclad, surefire method of seeing to it that the homeowner was regulated. There was never an incentive for a builder to build the house right the first time."

State body footed $1,000 lunch bill
When it comes to questionable government spending, most of us have heard of the $600 toilet seat bought by the defense department a few years ago. Here's one from Austin that may top it - the $1,000 lunch… A recent audit by the Texas comptroller found in its first two years, the TRCC spent $573,000 on public relations, including more than $90,000 for a Washington based PR firm and another $483,000 for an Austin PR firm…  Records show that Burson-Marsteller charged the TRCC more than $1,000 to review a speech over lunch, $645 to write a letter to the editor of the Austin American Statesman, nearly $2,500 to write an op ed column for the Austin paper and $1,400 to write a speech for delivery in San Antonio.  Video: Byron Harris Reports: State body footed $1,000 lunch bill