Abbott Veto is a Major Setback for Oversight of Troubled Adult Guardianship System
In one of his line-item vetoes announced Monday, Governor Greg Abbott effectively canceled a statewide program to inspect guardianship cases for signs of fraud or abuse against vulnerable Texans who are under court protection.
Abbott achieved a $5 million cut from the $217 billion state budget by eliminating a program that would, for the first time, offer a full accounting of how many elderly and incapacitated Texans are being neglected or swindled by their court-appointed guardians.
In a pilot program over the last two years, state auditors have reviewed more than 17,000 cases in 18 counties and found that more than half the cases are out of compliance with state law, missing reports from guardians appointed by a judge to look after an elderly or incapacitated person. Judges rely on these reports to ensure guardians aren’t exploiting the people in their care.
As the Observer has reported in a series of investigations, most counties in Texas either can’t or don’t pay for court staff to monitor these cases. Judges are left to oversee thousands of cases on their own, an impossible job they must handle on top of the new cases.
Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/guardianship-veto/
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