[COMMENT. This article provides an excellent description of the TRCC controversy and the influence of industry lobbyists and campaign contributions.]

Ten lawmakers who rejected a recommendation to abolish the state agency that helps shield home builders from consumer lawsuits have received at least a half million dollars in campaign contributions from builders since 2000.

Most of the money - $486,000 - came from home builder Bob Perry of Houston.

Another $22,050 was contributed by the Texas Association of Builders political action committee.

Other builders may have donated individually, but none approximated the magnitude of Perry's contributions.

The members of the Sunset Advisory Commission - five representatives, five senators and two public members - agreed unanimously late Tuesday to recommend that the Legislature allow the Texas Residential Construction Commission, or TRCC, to keep operating.

They rejected a staff recommendation to abolish the 5-year-old agency on grounds that it was "fundamentally flawed" and doing consumers more harm than good. The staff said the agency prevents home buyers from suing builders for shoddy workmanship until the buyers complete a lengthy dispute-resolution process.

Alex Winslow of the consumer group Texas Watch said it would be naive to suggest that political money from special interests has no impact on legislative debates.

"We're talking about the largest campaign contributor in the state of Texas in Bob Perry, and certainly the home builders lobby is influential at the Capitol," he said.

Perry would like to see the agency continued but hasn't discussed the issue with Sunset Commission members, his spokesman, Anthony Holm, said.

Quicker resolution

The Sunset Commission decided the agency must resolve disputes more quickly - within 105 days instead of the current average of 136 days.

Sen. Glenn Hegar, the Sunset Commission's vice chairman, proposed the streamlined process as a way that homeowners could get to court faster.

Hegar, R-Katy, has received $64,500 in campaign contributions from Bob Perry. Most of that amount, $45,000, came in 2006 during Hegar's first Senate race. The senator said he has met Bob Perry only once and isn't influenced by his contributions.

"Contributions are not going to determine how I vote on something. People can believe that or not," he said. "But I can't speak for the rest of the Legislature."

The Legislature's next session, beginning in January, will ultimately decide the future of the agency it created in 2003 at the behest of the home builders, who wanted a process to resolve complaints from consumers outside of the courtroom.

John Krugh, corporate counsel for Perry Homes, led a task force that crafted the legislation for the Texas Association of Builders.

Krugh was appointed one of four builder representatives on the Residential Construction Commission in September 2003 by Gov. Rick Perry, who had received $100,000 in contributions less than a month earlier from Bob Perry. (The two are not related.)

Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, a San Antonio Democrat who sits on the Sunset Commission, recommended a recovery fund to help compensate homeowners when builders go out of business.

By JANET ELLIOTT (janet.elliott@chron.com) and CLAY ROBISON (clay.robison@chron.com), Houston Chronicle
12/17/2008

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6170594.html

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