Pay to Play in Republican Texas

In Tuesday’s Austin American Statesman, Jason Embry tells us a sordid tale of Guv Goodhair’s crony capitalism at its worst.

Just last year a company now in deep doo doo over bilking the Federal Medicare insurance program received $2.1 million of our money from Goodhair’s personal political slush fund. He couldn’t find the money required by our state Constitution to keep school doors open… but he could funnel cash to the crooks.

So who was the worthy recipient of Goodhair’s magnanimity?

“The owner of AseraCare is a Plano-based company named Golden Living. Last March, Perry awarded Golden Living $2.1 million from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a taxpayer-funded pot of money that the state uses to recruit businesses. Golden Living received the money after agreeing to move its corporate headquarters to Plano and create 100 jobs.

Another arm of the parent company has also given more than $600,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which Gov. Rick Perry has chaired twice in the last four years. The association has been one of the biggest donors to Perry’s gubernatorial campaigns.”

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, an arm of Golden Living has given the Republican Governors Association $628,000 since 2006. Goodhair served twice served as that group’s chairman and was the chief fundraiser. The RGA is one of Perry’s chief supporters in his failing bid to secure the Republican presidential nomination.

Since 2003, 43 companies receiving somewhere around $330 million in Perry slush fund money have paid him back by contributing somewhere around $7 million to Goodhair’s various campaigns, and the Governors Association… which turned around and gave it back to Perry.

Pay to play is alive and well in Texas. Y’all come!

###