Perry awarded his "Enterprise Fund" $$ to his campaign contributors/alma mater

[rainbow4321]

**This** is the OTHER funding that TX lawmakers are threatening to pull out from under Perry...if he says NO to taking the stim unemployment money, they will seize control over his "job creation" fund that is really not creating a whole lot of jobs...but Perry is sure are handing out the bucks to companies and his cronies.
Long read but it gives insight into why Perry may cave on taking the stim package unemployment $$..."take the federal money or hand over your fund" is what lawmakers are telling him.

http://info.tpj.org/watchyourassets/enterprise/

Texas Governor Rick Perry uses the publicly financed Texas Enterprise Fund to pay companies to invest in the state and create new jobs here. At a time when both liberals and conservatives question the practice of doling out public dollars to private enterprises, the Enterprise Fund has awarded $233 million—almost two-thirds of its total grants—to companies that subsequently announced layoffs of some Texas workers or failed to create the number of jobs that they had promised in exchange for public funds. Penalties assessed on companies who don't meet their employment goals are weak at best and sometimes companies can escape penalties altogether.
(snip)


Program oversight also is inherently problematic. The governor’s office appears to have a major political interest in portraying the Enterprise Fund as a success, a role that conflicts with its ability to safeguard the funds and penalize lackluster awardees. Some Enterprise Fund contracts, for example, require grantees to consult with the governor’s office before issuing press releases related to their investments or employment in Texas.

(snip)

The Enterprise Fund’s two largest grants were for $50 million each. One of these went to the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine, a partnership between Texas A&M University and Lexicon Genetics (the Houston Chronicle revealed that some of Governor Perry’s top campaign contributors are major investors in Lexicon Genetics).5 The Institute received its state funds in a lump sum soon after the parties announced the deal in the summer of 2005.

The Institute contract includes separate job targets for A&M and Lexicon. Lexicon has struggled to meet its targets. Although it exceeded its initial job target by 30 jobs at the end of 2005, Lexicon created just 12 new jobs in 2006, falling 37 jobs short of its target. After applying the 30 job credits it earned the year before, Lexicon had to pay the state a $16,905 penalty for the seven remaining missing jobs ($2,415 per job). In this way, Lexicon created only 25 percent of its job requirements in 2006, yet it repaid just .03 percent of its Enterprise Funds.

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Now that you've read how he has thrown $$ at companies not doing what they were supposed to do with the funding that HE gave them, read his comment on the federal bailout money:


http://www.tpj.org/2008/11/houston-chronicle-perrys-jabs-at-feds.html


"The fact is if the federal government had that type of track record I wouldn't have a problem in the world," Perry said. "The fact is we've thrown $700 billion at mismanaged companies, at greedy Wall Streeters, and the result has been a stock market that has continued to go down."

[MagickMuffin]

1. Perry is such an embarrassment to our state

Another thing Perry is doing with the stimulus money is using it to double tax us by providing us with TOLL roads. My county (Tarrant) is on the list, Houston is another. Never mind we were suppose to have had our highway widen over 10 years ago. Also some of the bids are going to other contractors outside the US.


:kick: & RRRR

[rainbow4321]

3. "Contractors outside the US".

One more reason a grown up needs to be in charge of any stim money given to us...Perry has shown he can't handle the funds that he already has down here. Look at his own little in-state job stim funding, it is a MESS...questionable use of that money, no accountability on the part of the companies he gave the money to.

If he refuses the stim package unemployment and picks the option of the lawmakers taking his Enterprise Fund away from him, imagine his campaign contributors or the failing businesses he is coddling going "WTF do you MEAN they took your fund away and you have no more easy money to give us??? We'e outta here, see ya!"

Perry knows this..he will take the fed stim and say lawmakers "forced" him to do so or some other bullshit line.

[WolverineDG]

2. K&R

:hi: :loveya: Fellow Texan!

dg

[tammywammy]

4. k&r