Quorum Report Daily Buzz Quorum Report Daily Buzz Login into the Quorum Report Subscribe toQuorum Report
Quorum Report Daily Buzz

September 26, 2014      5:38 PM

AG's Office says it has worked to recover TEF money from companies that failed to create jobs

AG has worked to recover a large amount of state money overall, but the amount Abbott has tried to recover in TEF funds is small. His office is reviewing the audit of the Enterprise Fund.

After a day of attacks from Democrats who say the Republican Attorney General running for governor is duty-bound to try to recover taxpayer money that “went out the window” thanks to lax oversight of Gov. Perry’s business-luring Texas Enterprise Fund, the AG’s Office said Friday it was already working to recover some of those dollars before a scathing audit was released.

That audit performed by the State Auditor – the first independent audit of that fund – showed $222 million went to companies and other entities that never even submitted formal applications. Many of those millions did not come with the important strings attached dictating that new jobs actually be created, the audit found.

After asking for comment from both the campaign of AG Greg Abbott and the Office of the Attorney General, we heard back from Jerry Strickland in the AG’s office. He pointed out that the responsibility of overseeing state funds and auditing them has fallen primarily to the State Auditor since that position was created in 1929.