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George P. Bush Explains the General Land Office Shake-up

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has spearheaded a 'reboot' of the state's General Land Office.
Image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has spearheaded a 'reboot' of the state's General Land Office.

From Texas Standard:

Just shy of his first year in office, Texas Land Commissioner  George P. Bush has certainly made good on one important campaign promise – giving the  General Land Office (GLO) a reboot. 

The oldest state agency has undergone major staff changes, a website overhaul, and negotiations over how the Alamo will be managed.But not all of the news has been upbeat: Bush has gotten pushback from a former state official, and he's been criticized by some in the media for taking too much time away from work to campaign for his dad, Presidential nominee and former Florida governor  Jeb Bush.

He calls the GLO "the most important state office that Texans don't know about" and says the changeover in these positions has to do with following through on a campaign promise of fiscal conservatism, rather than reflecting his view of his predecessor.

"I don't have time, frankly, to deal with commentary, whether it's from my predecessor or from my critics," he says.

Bush says there were millions of dollars of bonuses awarded over several years, so he wants to "take it in a different direction."

"Many of our employees are paid well above the average American family and above the average salaries that you'll see here in the Capitol," he says. "We're going to try our best to make it more objective, more fair, based about not your relationships, but based upon what you bring to the table."

Copyright 2020 KUT 90.5. To see more, visit KUT 90.5.

Rhonda is the newest member of the KUT News team, joining in late 2013 as producer for KUT's new daily news program, The Texas Standard. Rhonda will forever be known as the answer to the trivia question, “Who was the first full-time hire for The Texas Standard?” She’s an Iowa native who got her start in public radio at WFSU in Tallahassee, while getting her Master's Degree in Library Science at Florida State University. Prior to joining KUT and The Texas Standard, Rhonda was a producer for Wisconsin Public Radio.