Plans Brewing to Keep Public Integrity Unit Going

Travis County commissioners are considering plans to foil Gov. Rick Perry's efforts to close the Public Integrity Unit of the Travis County District Attorney's Office.

Commissioners tell the Austin American-Statesman that their considering offering $3.7 million in county funds and passing the hat among other Texas counties to keep the unit going. Meanwhile, the commission majority will press the state to release funds for the unit.

Perry has cut the $7.5 million in state money budget for the unit for the next two years. He and leading Republican lawmakers cited District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg's refusal to resign after her drunken-driving arrest and conviction.

That would have threatened the jobs of 34 attorneys, investigators, accountants and others.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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