TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/042991/0429103.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6KB | 129 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 32

Winds of Change Sweep The Lone Star State


Maverick Governor Ann Richards shakes up the good ole boys with
a bold package of wide-ranging reforms

By RICHARD WOODBURY/AUSTIN


    Statehouse veterans scoffed last January when Democrat
Ann Richards vowed to create a "new Texas" ruled by a
responsive, "customer-oriented" government. Now the skepticism
has turned into shock. In only three months the first woman to
govern Texas in 56 years has moved with the speed of a Panhandle
twister to shake up the good-ole-boy network that has long
dominated the Lone Star State.

    Days after settling into her office, Richards began to
prune and energize the bloated bureaucracy and "make government
mean something in people's lives." She quickly imposed a hiring
freeze and pushed a sweeping audit of state operations to
eliminate such excesses as the 16 separate agencies that deliver
health and human services, including the several panels that
administer Medicaid to the poor.

    She made good on a campaign promise to open the corridors
of power by appointing dozens of women, blacks and Hispanics to
the boards and commissions that regulate and oversee the
machinery of government, and promised ongoing training to keep
them on their toes. Among her most significant appointments:
former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, a member of the House
Judiciary Committee that voted for the impeachment of Richard
Nixon, as her special adviser on ethics, and John Hannah Jr.,
a distinguished former federal prosecutor, as secretary of
state. Richards is also pushing for sweeping reforms to limit
campaign contributions and require full disclosure of lobbyists'
spending. Texas badly needs the reforms. Political payoffs are
so ingrained that two years ago an East Texas chicken farmer
seeking changes in a workers-compensation law brazenly doled out
nine $10,000 checks to lawmakers on the floor of the senate.

    Richards' blitz is decidedly populist. Her targets are
special interests that have grown accustomed to kid-glove
treatment from government. She stunned the chemical industry by
forcing a two-year moratorium on the construction of new
hazardous-waste sites and the expansion of existing ones and by
proposing to set up an environmental SWAT team to enforce
regulations that have long been ignored. She fired the entire
top echelon of the corporation-minded commerce department and
refocused the agency on small-business development and job
training. She smacked the insurance industry by temporarily
blocking a 26% increase in auto premiums and vowing to clamp
down on other "outrageous" rates. Accusing the insurance
regulatory board of being too cozy with the firms it is supposed
to oversee, she threatened a takeover if two members did not
resign. One agreed to step down.

    Richards is moving so quickly in part because her official
powers are limited. Under the state's "weak-Governor"
constitution, a legacy of the post-Civil War Reconstruction, her
authority is primarily confined to appointments and vetoes. If
she hopes to get the backing of the largely conservative
Democratic legislature for her liberal programs, she must rely
mostly on persuasion.

    In eight years as state treasurer, Richards learned the
importance of courting the legislature. Unlike her recent
predecessors as Governor, she has personally wooed the
lawmakers, inviting them to breakfasts and lunches at the
Governor's Greek-revival mansion. She talked state
representative Pete Laney into releasing a lottery bill from his
committee on state affairs by plying him with bagels and
doughnuts. Her snow-white bouffant hairdo and folksy charm have
become familiar at committee hearings, in which she often
testifies. "The legislature is excited because at long last
they're being paid attention to," says Richards' press secretary
Bill Cryer.

    For all her reforming zeal, however, Richards has not
completely turned away from politics as usual. She has rewarded
several fat-cat campaign contributors with appointments -- among
them Walter Umphrey to the parks and wildlife department and
Barnard Rapoport to the University of Texas board of regents.
She has sidestepped some prickly issues: refusing to help devise
a court-ordered plan for equalizing school funding and to
introduce a state income tax to ease Texas' $4.6 billion budget
shortfall. "Her honeymoon is over," warns Tom Craddick, leader
of the Republican legislative caucus. "She needs to draw up a
budget to show how she'll pay for all the programs. So far, she
hasn't said anything."

    Polls show that Richards' constituents are supportive of
her fast start. As she puts it, "The mood of activism seems to
be pleasing people." With admirers mobbing her whenever she
leaves her second-floor office, Richards can afford for now to
ignore scattered criticism and bask in the honeymoon glow. The
real test of her political skills will come when she has run
out of boards to appoint people to and can no longer avoid
tough decisions.


________________________________________________________________
ACTION ANNIE

    During her first three months in office, Governor Richards
has:

    -- Named minorities to fill nearly half of her 384
       appointments to boards, commissions and agencies.

    -- Pushed for an audit of government operations to eliminate
       waste and duplication.

    -- Proposed tough ethics reforms to scrutinize and regulate
       legislators' links with lobbyists and campaign
       contributors.

    -- Seized control of state insurance regulation.

    -- Forced a two-year moratorium on new hazardous-waste sites.