In 2003, Rick Perry created the Texas Enterprise
Fund and stacked it with repugican cronies. The fund’s purpose was to
subsidize job creation.
In 2004, The Dallas Morning News requested access to
the application of a company called Vought Aircraft. This company
wanted $35 million to expand its operations into the Dallas area. Greg
Abbott refused the request saying, that applications by companies
seeking funds from the TEF “might” contain confidential information.
Therefore, the applications must be kept secret.
In 2013, the Texas legislature passed legislature requiring the TEF to submit to an audit.
Last week, the results of the audit
were released. They revealed many serious problems, including the fact
that the TEF improperly distributed $222 million to business that
didn’t file formal applications. It turns out, that Vought Aircraft (the company with secrets that Abbott wanted to protect in 2004), didn’t submit an application at all.
The audit also found that the fund failed to keep proper records.
During a Sunday news conference, Wendy Davis accused
Abbot of a cover up originating with his 2004 ruling to withhold
applications of countries that got millions of dollars from the fund.
She wants Abbott to return the $1.4 million
in contributions Abbott received from beneficiaries of the fund and she
wants an independent investigation into Abbott’s role in keeping secret
records of the troubled agency.
“Greg Abbott used the power of his office to orchestrate a cover up of the transfer of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to companies who never even completed an application for the funds – blocking the release of applications he knew didn’t exist,” Davis said.“Mr. Abbott did not recover one dime of taxpayer dollars for the Enterprise Fund. Instead, he accepted more than $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the very taxpayer funded grant recipients he was supposed to be watching – and helped hide the fact hundreds of millions of our tax dollars were handed out without any oversight or accountability.”
In short, Davis is saying the Texas Enterprise Fund
wrongfully distributed money to corporations under Abbott’s watch.
Abbott used the power of his office to help cover it up. To show their
gratitude, the businesses donated to Abbott’s campaign.
When someone engages in wrongful and criminal
deception for personal financial gain as occurred here, he or she is
committing a crime called fraud.
Today the Lone Star Project filed
a Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) request for documents related to
latest fraud scandal involving the state’s Attorney-General.
Part of Abbott’s job as Attorney-General is to
decide if the documents requested in a TPIA request should be
disclosed. Since this TPIA request seeks documents that may prove
Abbott’s involvement in the Texas Enterprise Fund fraud scandal, he has
an obvious conflict of interest. It’s also likely that he will deny the
request.
Welcome to oversight and transparency, Abbott style!
If this sounds familiar, it should. Back in March, we reported on Abbott’s shady past with the Cancer Prevention Research
Institute of Texas. (CPRIT). While on CPRIT’s oversight board, Abbott
looked the other way while CPRIT gave millions of tax payer dollars to
businesses that got low scores on their grant applications, or the
application wasn’t reviewed at all. At least some of those
beneficiaries also donated to Abbott’s campaign.
Rick Perry created the Texas Enterprise Fund and
CPRIT. Then he hired Republican cronies to distribute money to
businesses of repugican supporters. In both cases, Greg Abbott looked
the other way while the cronies gave away millions of taxpayer dollars
to repugican cabal supporters in the business community. The recipients contributed
to Abbott’s campaign. Whether those funds were a reward for a job well
done, or an incentive for Abbott to create similar opportunities in the
future, remains to be seen.
Either way, trusting Greg Abbott to protect tax dollars is like trusting a mouse to protect cheese.
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