SIGN NOW! Greg Abbott had four months - demand he make Rick Perry pay back the $80,000 he already charged taxpayers for his private legal defense. 

Gov. Rick Perry caved to days of public pressure from thousands of Texans, finally agreeing to stop the unprecedented practice of charging taxpayers for his legal bills, according to a late night report by Jay Root of the Texas Tribune.

However, Greg Abbott has yet to answer questions about whether or not Perry will pay back $80,000 in legal fees he's already spent. These are questions we first raised on live TV just hours after Perry's indictment last Friday, and raised again in our blog post this past Sunday, "Rick Perry Has $5 Million in Political Funds, Yet Charges Taxpayers for Private Legal Defense."

On Tuesday afternoon, as Rick Perry was being booked, we launched a petition demanding Greg Abbott rule on whether or not Governor Perry could use taxpayer funds for his private legal fees. Before news broke of Perry's change of heart late Wednesday night, more than 5,000 Texans had already signed the petition.

The following is our statement about Perry's change of mind:

"Greg Abbott has yet to answer a four-month old request on the legality of Rick Perry using taxpayer funds. Since we still don't know if it was even legal to charge taxpayers, will Rick Perry pay back the $80,000 he's already spent?" - Ed Espinoza, Executive Director of Progress Texas