Three years after Gov. Rick Perry's biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying.
The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry's investment was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering.
Together they may have enriched Perry by almost $500,000, according to an independent real estate appraisal commissioned by The News.
Readers can check out the land Perry purchased here.
Not bad, huh? Speaking of which, Rick Perry is presently vacationing in southern California where he is on a fund raising mission. How ironic is it that the Governor of the state with an $18 billion budget shortfall vacations in a state that boasts a $19 billion budget shortfall? But unlike the Governor of California who is aggressively addressing its deep financial hole, Rick Perry refuses to talk about how he will make up our shortfall. No wonder the Governor is too chicken to debate Bill White. He is too scared to admit that he drove Texas into the ditch and a shortfall of $18 billion means state employees will very likely be laid off as will teachers and police. State school professors will likely get salary cuts or will be furloughed a couple days a month. Classroom sizes will increase and fewer classes will be offered in state colleges and universities. Non tenured faculty and lecturers will likely be laid off. I heard all about the woes of California's efforts to plug its hole because I have family members that live there including one that is a UC college professor. I also spoke at length with mothers of children in K-12 schools. Despite the beauty of the beaches and the mountains, there is a lot of fiscal pain in California that is being shouldered by everyday working people. But the irresponsible and corrupted politicians that run the state seem to always come out smelling like roses.
Speaking of corruption it should be come as no surprise to anyone that Rick Perry has neither the courage or integrity to own up to his fiscal incompetence.
Nor does the governor want to talk about recent revelations of his murky land deal in which he sold his property in Horseshoe Bay on LBJ Lake to a sleazy international arms dealer.
Jaffe's company had sold the parcel to state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, a friend and political ally of Perry's. Fraser sold the lot to Perry for just above $300,000.
An appraiser hired by The News determined that the land actually was worth $450,000 when Perry bought it.
Perry sold the property in 2007 to Alan Moffatt, a British national who is a business partner and close associate of Jaffe's.
Moffatt, as the owner of an aviation firm, was questioned, but never prosecuted, for his company's international arms shipments to Africa in the 1990s.
He paid Perry $1.15 million for the parcel. The News' appraiser, who has decades of experience in Horseshoe Bay real estate, found that price to be $350,000 above market value.
Moffatt denied that anything improper occurred in the transaction. "It just happened that the governor of Texas owned that lot," he said. "It was a good deal for me."
If Perry was deemed to have received any gifts, he would, as a state officeholder, have been required to disclose them. He did not do so.
Perry has portrayed himself as one of the most financially transparent governors in Texas history, and has attacked Democratic nominee Bill White for not releasing all tax returns.
Republican Perry, running for re-election to a record third four-year term, has been criticized by political opponents, including GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, for enriching himself via land deals while in office.
The head of a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes transparency in government said Perry's Horseshoe Bay transactions look questionable.
I'd say Rick Perry joins the ranks of a typical self-serving Republican politician that is incapable of governing and has the integrity of a can of beans.
Like Tom Delay who said he did nothing wrong when he broke just about every ethics rule in the book, Perry has neither the courage nor the spine to admit that he has made any mistakes at all.
Meanwhile Perry's campaign donors have to pony up for his vacation expenses and I wonder if the contributors mind that our Governor has the tastes of a king. Rick Perry prefers the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and the drop dead gorgeous St. Regis Monarch hotel on Dana Point, about 50 miles south of L.A. At the Peninsula Hotel rooms range in price from $555.00 to $8000.00 per night. The St. Regis is a steal at $325.00 to $1335.00 per night. I don't think the prices include a free breakfast every morning.
While Rick Perry is off living like a wealthy monarch, his opponent Bill White is here at home in the trenches talking to and connecting with folks in Waco, Hearne, Killeen, Temple, College Station, Stephenville, De Leon, Seguin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. Bill White is not too scared to talk about the $18 billion budget shortfall. Nor is he too afraid to tell us how he intends to meet it. Those of us who live in Houston where Bill White served as our mayor know that he has a strong ethical backbone, he is immensely competent and he will serve the needs of the people over those of himself.
I see the race between Perry and White as one of the narcissist vs. the altruist.
I think folks know who bears the narcissist brand. |
