Sunday, October 02, 2005
Maybe They Had A Hurricane Party
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) had no one in his office during Hurricane Rita.
According to a Houston businessman, and his attorney, who have regular business dealings with the Texas Attorney General's office in Austin, Attorney General Greg Abbott declared a paid holiday for his entire staff on Friday, September 23. That's the day Rita began to come ashore in Texas. Her arrival was completed in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, September 24. The approach of the hurricane was the official excuse cited by Abbott when he ordered the holiday.
The Attorney General's main office is in Austin, the state capital, along with the main offices for every other state agency. Austin is several hundred miles to the west of Rita's strike zone, and didn't see so much as a drop of rain from the hurricane.
Abbott's order was effective for all of his branch offices, and all of the state employees under his command. Closing state offices in coastal bend cities is understandable, but closing them in Austin, Dallas, and places even further out west like Lubbock, Midland, or El Paso is simply ridiculous. It also left consumers without anyone to call to report price gouging, which seems to occur with every mass evacuation.
As of this posting, Abbott is the only state official known to have sent his entire agency home. One can only speculate as to the cost of the holiday to tax payers.
