Texas gets Din integrity investigation
A national study that weighed anti-corruption laws and policies ranked Texas 38th in government transparency and accountability.
Overall, the state received a D-minus in the so-called state integrity investigation released Monday by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization based in Washington, D.C.
In 13 categories, Texas received only one A — for a state budget process that includes effective legislative oversight, a publicly accessible budget and a nonpartisan
Legislative Budget Board that analyzes the cost of every bill and budget proposal.
Having an independent State Auditor’s Office earned Texas a B in the auditing category, with the only substantive quibble being that reports are difficult to search on the agency’s website.
The analysis heads downhill from there, however, with Texas getting eight F grades for categories that included lobbying disclosure, public access to information, political financing and accountability for the three branches of government.
On lobbying, for example, Texas was faulted because lobbyists’ employers do not have to submit spending reports and because Texas Ethics Commission officials said they do not have the money or workforce to independently audit disclosure reports, the study said.
The center was unimpressed with Texas laws allowing unlimited political donations to statewide officials, legislators and political parties. Campaign finance laws also do not limit contributions from lobbyists or political action committees.
A report that accompanied the analysis faulted the Texas Legislature for passing “only a handful of mostly modest ethics bills” in the session that ended June 1.
The report lamented the failure of recommendations backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, including proposals to increase reporting requirements when lobbyists wine and dine legislators, beef up disclosure rules for state officials and candidates, and add transparency to millions of dollars in undisclosed donations to political nonprofits via so-called dark money.
“I think it shows that Texas has a long way to go,” said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based government watchdog group. “We’re near the bottom in ethics disclosure and campaign finance, and this is nothing new. Advocates for years have talked about the need to improve accountability and disclosure in elections and the way we run government.”
The study was the second conducted by the center. In 2012, Texas ranked 27th with a D-plus. Most state scores dropped in the most recent study, said the organization, attributing some of the difference to changes in methodology.
In the latest national survey, the highest grade was given to Alaska — a C — while two states got a C-minus: California and Connecticut. Eleven states were given F’s, including neighboring Oklahoma and Louisiana.
The grades were based on answers to 245 questions that examined each state’s laws and how well they are enforced, the center said, adding that research was done by experienced journalists in every state, with each question’s answer provided on the group’s website.