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Richards Stirs Up Texas Government : Politics: The Democratic governor’s style, choice of appointees have taken Austin by storm. But she has critics on both sides of spectrum.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

After vowing to create a “new Texas” in her inaugural address in January, Gov. Ann Richards wasted little time starting to make good on her promise.

With her folksy charm and down-home humor, Richards has taken the capital by storm. And her hallmark has been an aggressively populist approach to government.

In contrast to her Republican predecessor, the nearly invisible Bill Clements, Richards has been an accessible governor. She has surprised legislators by dropping by their offices unannounced to chat. And she has taken to testifying before house committees on insurance and ethics reform.

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But perhaps more important, she has appointed an unprecedented number of women and minorities to powerful boards and commissions that previously had been bastions of white-male authority. Of 634 appointments she has made so far, 44.2% have been female and 37.8% have been black or Latino.

Considering the limitations she faced in making some of those appointments, the percentages are all the more stunning. A case in point is the large Interstate Oil Compact Commission, whose membership must be drawn from an overwhelmingly white, male oil industry.

“Even if she were not to be reelected, if things were to go back to the old status quo, there would still be enough people in key positions for the next couple of years to have an impact,” said Jude Filler, director of the Texas Alliance for Human Needs, a coalition of private service organizations.

As Texas’ first woman governor since Miriam (Ma) Ferguson was elected in 1924, Richards is head of what Vogue magazine recently called “the first government matriarchy in the New World,” a reference to not only Richards but the female mayors of Houston and Dallas, Ft. Worth and dozens of other Texas towns.

Richards’ gender, though, is only part of the reason she has created a stir in state politics. There also is her sassy personal style and her progressive brand of politics. Some state government watchers are comparing her administration to the heady days of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.

But that is not to say she has had a trouble-free administration. She has come under fire from both sides of the political spectrum. The Republican critique is fairly predictable--that she is spending too much.

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“The governor, in our opinion, is doing exactly what Democrats do naturally,” said Republican Rep. Troy Fraser, a member of the Republican Caucus. “Instead of curtailing the size of government they’re pushing a huge tax increase on the state.”

And the first signs of disenchantment already are starting to appear among some Texas liberals who helped elect her to office.

“I’m not one of them, but there are people who say Ann Richards is just a bubba in drag,” said Filler. “Bubba,” in Texas, is another name for “good ol’ boy.” The question being asked is whether the governor represents true change or is merely a feminine variation on business as usual.

A case in point is the issue of a state income tax.

Texas has no such tax, while ranking near the bottom in spending for human services. The spending, however, will have to increase because of drastic, and very expensive, changes ordered by the federal courts in the state’s prison, mental health and school systems.

Richards has stood steadfast against a graduated income tax, despite recommendations by Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and a task force she appointed to look for ways to eliminate the huge budget deficit. Instead, she has argued for a state lottery as a way of adding revenue.

Opponents, including some of the liberals who helped elect her, contend that a lottery would be just one more regressive tax for Texans to bear. The state already imposes a 6% sales tax.

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Predictably in Texas--where income tax is anathema--Bullock’s proposal was never seriously considered. The Legislature earlier this month approved a bill that will allow Texans to vote Nov. 5 on a lottery.

Bullock insists that he will be proven right in January when increased local property taxes will cause people around the state to reconsider opposition to a graduated income tax. Bill Cryer, the governor’s press spokesman, said, however, that the political reality is that Texas isn’t ready for an income tax and won’t be ready until voters are first shown that every effort has been made to eliminate waste and duplication in government.

Distrust of government--and dislike of taxes--is a longtime Texas tradition that was cemented during the Reconstruction period when a Republican administration briefly reigned. The new state constitution drawn up after Reconstruction weakened the executive branch and decentralized government to the point, according to a recent state study, that fragmentation has resulted in duplicated functions, overlapping authorities and waste. For example, 14 agencies in Texas provide health and human services, while seven others collect various state taxes.

In the last legislative special session, Richards pushed to eliminate much of the governmental duplication and diminish the power of state boards while at the same time giving herself greater direct authority over state agencies. Had she succeeded, Richards would have been the most powerful Texas governor in the last century.

As it turned out, Richards did not get nearly all of what she wanted. But the word from the governor’s office is that she will keep trying.

Profile: Ann Richards

Born: Sept. 1, 1933

Hometown: Lakeview, Tex.

Education: BA, Baylor University, 1954; teacher’s certificate, University of Texas, 1955

Career highlights: 1973-75, administrative assistant to Texas state representative; 1977-82, county commissioner; 1983-90, Texas state treasurer

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Source: Who’s Who in American Politics

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