A challenger for Texas agriculture commissioner said a North Waco gas station where pumps haven’t been inspected in almost 15 years demonstrates a lack of attention paid to consumer protection at the Agriculture Department.

According to state law, pumps are required to be checked every four years to make sure drivers aren’t shortchanged or undercharged.

As part of an effort to demonstrate lax inspection in the state, Hank Gilbert, an East Texas Democrat trying to unseat Republican rancher Todd Staples, showed off the pumps at a gas station at North 18th Street and Herring Avenue that haven’t been inspected since 1996, when now-Gov. Rick Perry was the agriculture commissioner.

Gilbert also listed six Waco stations he found on Valley Mills and Waco drives with no inspection stickers at all.

“If I can find six stations (without stickers) in 30 minutes, how many dollars have been left on the table?” Gilbert said, noting stations pay yearly licensing fees to the state on a per-pump basis.

The Democrat said, if elected, he would beef up inspections and pursue criminal penalties against stations that repeatedly fail inspections.

Staples’ campaign called Gilbert a “pathological liar” and said since Staples became commissioner in 2007, “penalties for noncompliant fuel operators have quadrupled, inspection blitzes have increased, and violators have been turned over to the Texas attorney general for prosecution.”

The two campaigns offered dueling statistics on how many pumps in the state are compliant.

Staples’ camp says it is 94 percent, while Gilbert says it is 60 percent in McLennan County and worse in more rural areas of the state.

“I’m an Aggie and I’m sure I took the same math classes that he did, but his math and my math don’t add up,” Gilbert said.

Staples’ campaign spokesman Cody McGregor responded by saying Gilbert was lying.

McGregor noted the challenger had his driver’s license suspended in April, had a decades-old misdemeanor conviction for writing an insufficient funds check, and was arrested in 2009 for unpaid traffic tickets.

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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