Austin Statesman: Activists target homebuilders

A report unveiled Monday by two watchdog groups at the Capitol shows that homebuilders contributed at least $9 million to state leaders and candidates during the past four years.

Austin Statesman
CENTRAL TEXAS
Activists target homebuilders 

A report unveiled Monday by two watchdog groups at the Capitol shows that homebuilders contributed at least $9 million to state leaders and candidates during the past four years.
Brian Donovan, a Campaigns for People spokesman, and Janet Ahmad, national president of the San Antonio-based HomeOwners for Better Building, released the study showing that Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick received $1 million of that total.
Campaigns for People is a nonprofit group pushing for campaign finance reform.
Later Monday, in northeast Round Rock, Donovan and Ahmad addressed about a dozen residents in the Chandler Creek subdivision who are protesting what they call the unfair business practices of KB Homes. Residents said KB Homes officials are ignoring their requests for repairs for such problems as poor plumbing installation, exposed beams and cracked walls and ceilings.
KB Homes spokeswoman Kate Mulhearn said that the company has only six open claims in the subdivision, none of them older than a month. KB Homes is the top home builder in Austin, according to the J.D. Power & Associates new home customer satisfaction rankings.
Compiled from staff and wire reports