TABC Chief Will Resign After Agency Used Your Tax Dollars to Travel to Booze Industry Conferences

AUSTIN — The executive director of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will resign as early as Monday, the Texas Tribune reports, after liquor regulators used taxpayer dollars to pay for trips to conferences that the alcohol industry largely funded.State government and alcohol industry insiders said Sherry Cook's resignation was imminent, although TABC spokesperson Chris Porter declined to comment. The agency's leaders have been under scrutiny since the report that they spent $85,000 on out-of-state trips since the 2011 fiscal year, primarily on liquor industry conferences, according to the state comptroller's office. The comptroller's records also show almost $17,000 in payments to the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators in registration and membership fees since the 2011 fiscal year. Cook has led the agency since 2012.The revelations came after the leak of an internal flier portraying Cook and other agency leaders in an airplane drinking bottles of Lone Star Beer ahead of a conference in California. The caption of the flier reads "Here we come California! Woo Hoo!!!"TABC used $8,000 in taxpayer dollars for the trip to San Diego for the conference, according to the agency and the state comptroller's office records. California wasn't the agency's only sunny destination. Four employees went to the group's 2013 conference at the Sheraton Waikiki in Honolulu, running up a $10,000 tab for taxpayers.   Continue reading...

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