Governor Perry’s Middle East Junked Paid For By Corporations With Business Before The Legislature
Vince Leibowitz | Mar 15, 2007 | Comments 0
What do AT&T, Verizon, Vinson & Elkins, the Associated General Contractors of Texas, CenterPoint Energy, TXU, BNSF Railway and Williams Brothers Construction have in common? They all could be affected by legislation before the Texas Legislature this session and they all forked over a pot of cash to pay for Governor Perry’s trip to the Middle East.
Perry, First Lady Anita Perry and two aides (communications director Eric Bearse and general counsel Brian Newby) are on the junket. Perry’s office has no clue how much the trip will cost, but it is being financed through TexasOne, a privately financed economic development program run by Perry’s office.
Although much of the trip is being funded through the TexasOne slush fund, part of it is paid for with your tax dollars. The state is footing the bill for the Department of Public Safety security detail that accompanied Governor Perry.
Of course, Perry lapdog spokesman Robert Black says that just because companies are paying for Perry to go overseas that doesn’t mean they will get special treatment:
“Ludicrous?” Yeah, just like it was “ludicrous” to believe that Grovor Norquist, Perry and James Leininger would write tax policy in the Bahamas.
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Filed Under: 80th Legislature • Texas Governor
