Perry is In!

[flounder]

it's time for rick perry to go. he's bad for Texas, AND he is bad for the USA. ...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Terry_S_Singeltary_Sr/governor-perrys-texas-economy_n_917460_100935003.html



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Terry_S_Singeltary_Sr/governor-perrys-texas-economy_n_917460_100936080.html

 

[hypocritexposer]

it's time for rick perry to go. he's bad for Texas, AND he is bad for the USA. ...


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Terry_S_Singeltary_Sr/governor-perrys-texas-economy_n_917460_100935003.html



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Terry_S_Singeltary_Sr/governor-perrys-texas-economy_n_917460_100936080.html

Here's a video on how Perry will be defeated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY2-Fxu9078

 

[flounder]

talk about death panels. this was worse, profiting off the dead teachers, and offering up a pair a shoes in trade. perry is just like a vulture...




Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme



First Posted: 8/25/11 12:21 PM ET Updated: 8/25/11 01:24 PM ET


WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003, top officials from Texas Governor Rick Perry's office pitched an unusual offer to the state's retired teachers: Let's get into the death business.

Perry's budget director, Mike Morrissey, laid out a pitch that was both ambitious and risky, according to notes summarizing the meeting provided to The Huffington Post.

According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant, the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.

All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing.

The meeting notes offer the most direct evidence that the Perry administration was not only intimately involved with the insurance scheme, but a leading driver of the plan.

It was a back-room deal at odds with Perry's public persona as a career politician who had successfully sold Texans on his vision of minimal government intrusion. And it still is. Nearly eight years after the meeting, when Perry formally announced his run for the presidency in Charleston, S.C., he honed that vision into the perfect applause line: "I'll promise you this," he had said in his West Texas drawl. "I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your life as I can."

Death in Texas, on the other hand, is another matter. That first meeting with teacher groups and retirement plan officials in November 2003, recalled one attendee, was an effort by Perry's office to solicit support for the life insurance idea from teacher associations. There was little question who was promoting the plan.

"His office was pushing it," the source said. "It was like, 'We've got to do whatever we can. ... Here's an innovative idea. We really want you on board.'"

The governor's office was even prepared to put down a little cash up front. If retirees balked at the notion of the state profiting from their deaths, Perry's budget men suggested they could be persuaded for the cost of a pair of shoes, according to the meeting notes. If a retiree signed a contract allowing the state's teacher pension fund to buy life insurance on them, the governor was prepared to give them between $50 and $100.

"Precious little for what they were giving up," said the meeting attendee.

The notes make clear that the governor's proposal deliberately targeted the elderly. The state was only seeking to take out life insurance on people between the ages of 75 and 90. At a separate meeting five days later, the plan's proponents discussed the "mental capacity" of these retirees to grant consent as one of three major technical obstacles to the plan, according to notes from that meeting.

At the first meeting, Morrissey said it could take 10 to 12 years for Texas to "earn" money from the scheme, but insisted the deal could be worth up to $700 million for the state if the retirement fund could sign up 40,000 retired teachers.

The meeting notes show Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor, a Perry appointee, joined Morrissey in the sales pitch, claiming that "this arrangement" was already being utilized by "some very rich people" who had set up similar plans to benefit the University of Texas and Texas A&M.

"It was a pretty hard sell: 'This is something you need to get on board with,'" the source said, paraphrasing officials' comments at the meeting.

The source says the claim involving a similar program benefiting the Texas universities turned out to be untrue -- the "rich people" had taken out the policies themselves with the intent of sharing any life insurance payments with the universities. Montemayor, as insurance commissioner, would have had to waive "insurable interest" regulations to allow the schools to buy life insurance on their professors. There is no public record that he did so. The University of Texas and Texas A&M did not return requests for comment.

The aggressive push from the Perry administration differs remarkably from its later public characterization of its involvement in the deal. When the proposal leaked to the press that winter, the governor's spokespeople attempted to tamp down any notion that Perry was the engine behind the plan -- and said if there ever was a plan, it was nowhere near final.

That December, spokesman Gene Acuna told the Dallas Morning News that the plan was merely "a concept." "Questions are being answered, questions are being raised," he said. "Depending on the answers to those questions, plus input from all affected parties ... that will determine the next step."

In a January story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, another Perry spokesman attempted to create more distance between the governor and the plan. "We never endorsed any concept," said Robert Black. "The governor's opinion is that it's prudent to look at ideas and concepts ... particularly when it won't result in a loss of benefits or raising taxes to shore up the retirement system."

Messages left for Perry spokespeople requesting comment for this story were not returned. But the behind-the scenes meeting notes reveal Perry's office had not only endorsed the concept, but had already formulated a plan to implement it. That first meeting on Nov. 12 was run by Perry's staff. The man who would become the fall guy for the controversy -- former senator-turned-financier Phil Gramm -- was not even present.

THE GRAMM BARGAIN

Gramm had made six-figure campaign contributions to Perry's campaign and had been -- and may still be -- one of Perry's most trusted political allies and personal mentors. "Perry worships at [Gramm's] feet, intellectually," said one semi-retired political consultant in Austin. "He considers Gramm an economic genius."

After lending political aid to Perry, Gramm was poised to make a fortune from the life insurance deal. His role in the scheme had the appearance of banal corruption and cronyism. Although Gramm wasn't in on the first meeting with teacher groups, he played an active role in subsequent efforts to push the scheme.

It was Gramm who could make the plan a financial reality. He left the U.S. Senate in November 2002 for a lucrative vice president post at UBS. After Morrissey, Montemayor and Perry budget aide Brian Guthrie first articulated the plan on Nov. 12, Gramm came to Austin to help push the deal. That move eventually prompted Texas Democrats to file an ethics complaint against Gramm for making a the pitch without registering as a lobbyist.

Gramm was hoping to put together a new package of complex assets for speculators to gamble on. Corporations had been using mass purchases of life insurance policies on their employees for years as part of an elaborate tax avoidance scheme (the government doesn't tax insurance premiums or death benefits). The employees themselves -- affectionately referred to as "dead peasants" among insurance experts -- received no benefit. Only the companies who bought the policies would receive payouts when these "peasants" died. Gramm wanted to convince investors to bet on peoples' lives by purchasing pools of life insurance and annuities taken out on individuals.

Gramm and UBS had concocted a gruesome combination of what are now regarded as two of the most infamous Wall Street scams on record. The resulting package closely resembled the growing market for mortgage-backed securities, but instead of allowing Wall Street to bet on peoples' homes, it would enable bets on peoples' lives.



State laws generally frowned on big Wall Street investment banks taking out life insurance on random individuals. To buy life insurance on another person, the insuree's written consent was necessary, as was the cooperation of a state insurance regulator willing to work around requirements that the owner of an insurance policy have an "insurable interest" in whatever -- or whomever -- was being insured.

Enter the Texas Teachers Retirement System (TRS), the state-operated pension fund with a tremendous database full of soon-to-be-deceased retirees who could sign off on policies for the UBS scheme. At the meeting with Gramm, then-State Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor was happy to bend the law. He agreed to grant a special waiver on insurance regulations that would allow the deal to go through, according to meeting notes.

"There was some worry about the legality," recalled the attendee. "[Montemayor] said 'Don't worry about it.' He could take those questions off the table as the insurance commissioner."

"I don't remember any of the details," Montemayor told HuffPost in a recent interview. He is now a principal with the Black Diamond Capital Partners private equity firm.

When asked about the scheme, TRS insisted that it was only tangentially involved in the UBS discussions.

"While TRS attended a few meetings to learn what the proposal was about, the concept was never fully developed and was never taken to the TRS Board for action," TRS spokesman Howard Goldman told HuffPost. The current executive director of TRS is Brian Guthrie -- one of the two Perry budget officials who presented the deal back in 2003.

The plan was to have UBS buy the life insurance policies with mega-insurer AIG, then bundle those policies into securities, and sell them off to a small group of investors. By keeping the investor group small, Gramm could avoid the public and regulatory scrutiny required by standard public securities sales. He wouldn't even have to disclose details of the scheme to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Texas would get a portion of the fees UBS received from selling the securities. But while Gramm's pitch included far more structural details than Morrissey's previous talk, it came up shorter on one crucial piece of information: how much money the state would actually make.

Morrissey had described a payout of up to $700 million. But Gramm refused to offer even general revenue figures. In one ghoulish section from the meeting notes, Gramm emphasized that the actual payments to the state would depend on who died, and when.

"These amounts depend on interest rates and deaths," the notes read. "They can't price it yet, or estimate the amount of money available annually to TRS until the bank looks at the universe of those participating."

None of the state's money would be at risk in the initial purchase of life insurance plans, but the state's potential liabilities got murkier when those plans were bundled into securities. In order to profit from those security sales, Texas would have had to partner with UBS. And if investors ultimately thought they'd been bilked in the arrangement, Texas could be sued. It was also not clear how the state would form a partnership with UBS, or how much it would cost.

"It was real nebulous," said a person present at the meeting. "It was kind of like, 'Trust us, we're big boys who play in this league and we're going to protect you.'"

Regardless of how any ultimate deal eventually panned out, Gramm and UBS would score big, up-front commissions just for getting the contracts signed. Phone calls and emails to Gramm requesting comment for this article were not returned. UBS likewise did not respond to requests for comment.

MEDIA BACKLASH

The strange thing about all the scheming was that the teacher pension fund didn't actually need any money. At the time, it had a funding ratio of over 94 percent, well above the 80 percent threshold that financial experts consider healthy. Perry's team needed to convince the public the scheme's architects were the white knight riding in to save their retirements; meeting notes show plans to persuade retirees that they would be doing a patriotic deed by allowing investors to gamble on their deaths.

Jeri Stone, the Texas Classroom Teachers Association's executive director and general counsel, told HuffPost that the plan had nothing to do with shoring up any retiree safety net; it was simply an example of Perry's deference to Gramm. Without the former senator's involvement, she said, the plan might not have gotten an audience.

Since the pension fund was healthy, the deal was instead structured to profit TRS-Care, a health care program for retired teachers administered by pension fund officials. TRS-Care had initially been established in 1985 with 10 years of funding, receiving additional funding injections in following years to keep it afloat.

When the deal eventually leaked, teacher groups balked at the entire arrangement.

"It was just pretty morbid and I don't think it convinced anybody it was gonna enrich anybody except Phil Gramm and UBS," Texas State Teachers Association Spokesman Clay Robison told HuffPost. "Our members were pretty much appalled by it."

"No one wants to think there are people out there hoping you'll die soon," Stone explained.

During the November 2003 meeting, Gramm and the Perry administration were well aware of the potential for a media debacle. "The 'liability' is really on the PR side for AIG ... and possibly TRS," the meeting notes read. "They want to avoid a 'Wal-Mart' problem."

Although hundreds of companies used dead peasant insurance policies to dodge taxes, Walmart took a particularly bad PR beating for the practice, in large part because the company was profiting from massive life insurance policies on rank-and-file workers whom it paid low wages. Perry had just signed off on cutting benefits to retired teacher health care plans, and following that up with a plan to gamble on retiree longevity had the potential for political and public relations trouble.

How to deal with the media was also a topic at the Gramm meeting, according to the notes.

"Gramm said that once the program is structured, the leadership and he will hold a press conference and go to editorial boards," the notes state. If anyone asked tough questions, Gramm instructed they would give vague answers. The key: Do not explain what the plan would exactly entail -- just tell the press that Texas was "using insurance products under the supervision of the insurance commission and Montemayor ... to help fund or enhance TRS-Care." If all else failed, officials were to tell the media that "this is a private offering."

Gramm concluded the meeting, the notes show, by saying he wanted "to consummate this deal ASAP."

When the press did find out about the scheme, Perry's team was unable to simultaneously downplay its role in the endeavor and shape the public narrative about the program. Perry did not defend the plan in detail because doing so would have only reinforced the perception that Perry was, in fact, a major advocate of the plan who had been involved since its inception.

Democrats in the state legislature hammered Perry, decrying his relationship with Gramm as corrupt while highlighting the recent cuts to retiree benefits. Charles Soechting, the chair of the Texas Democratic Party at the time, led the charge.

"It was just real clear that it was a deal worked out between Perry's people and Phil Gramm's to help UBS make a lot of money," he told HuffPost. "It was just a scam."

The deal collapsed. But ultimately, none of its top architects paid a serious political price for the debacle. Perry did not abandon his close relationship with Gramm. A few years later, Perry's 23-year-old son went to work for UBS, and Gramm began urging Perry to let UBS privatize the Texas state lottery. Perry named Guthrie executive director of the teacher pension fund. Morrissey is now a senior adviser to Perry. And Perry himself, of course, is now a top contender for the Republican presidential nomination.




http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/rick-perry-texas-life-insurance-scheme_n_935666.html



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/25/rick-perry-texas-life-insurance-scheme_n_935666.html?page=2




talk about death panels. this was worse, profiting off the dead teachers, and offering up a pair a shoes in trade...

 

[flounder]

Another Rick Perry Staffer Ensnared In Teacher Death Bond Scheme

First Posted: 8/26/11 04:50 PM ET Updated: 8/26/11 04:59 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Texas Governor Rick Perry's ties to Swiss banking giant UBS go beyond his relationship with former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas). Perry's current chief of staff and top press person for his campaign, Ray Sullivan, spent five years as a lobbyist for UBS in Texas -- a tenure that began the same year Gramm made his macabre pitch for Perry to enable Wall Street gambling on the deaths of Texas teachers.

Sullivan reaped between $300,000 and $600,000 lobbying for UBS between 2003 and 2008, according to data compiled by Texans for Public Justice, a nonpartisan government transparency group. Disclosure forms only require lobbyists to indicate a salary range, not a specific salary. Sullivan had several other lobbying clients during those same years. He has been described in the local Texas press as a member of Perry's trusted inner circle.

Sullivan worked for Perry both in the governor's mansion and in the late 1990s when Perry was then lieutenant governor. Sullivan started working for UBS in May 2003. That November, Perry aggressively pushed the Texas teacher pension fund and state teacher associations to sign off on a UBS plan to take out life insurance policies and annuities on retired Texas teachers -- an elaborate scheme in which the state of Texas would serve as a something of a bookie, setting up Wall Street bets on how long those teachers would live.

According to confidential notes obtained by the Huffington Post, the Perry administration had been elaborately briefed on details of the plan and was making a "hard sell" to teacher groups in behind-the-scenes meetings. When the plan leaked to the press in December 2003, however, the Perry camp claimed to have had only tangential involvement after receiving an inquiry from Gramm. The deal soon fell apart.

Gramm, a chief architect of the scheme, drew the critical attention of several Texas newspapers at the time, but Sullivan's involvement received much less scrutiny, though his longstanding ties to Perry create the same appearance of corruption and cronyism.

"Sullivan is classic example of the way Perry works," explained Andrew Wheat, research director with Texans for Public Justice. "There's a coterie of insiders that move back and forth between the governor's office, the governor's campaign and the corporate lobby. ... It's a beautiful relationship for everybody except the public."

Sullivan and Perry and did not respond to requests for comment for this story, nor did UBS representatives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/26/rick-perry-staffer-insurance-scheme_n_938413.html

 

[Tam]

Taken from the HuffingPost off of Flounders comment

Total Comments: 47 Friends: 0

47 comments on Huffington post and you have 0 friends Seems you are making the same impression over the liberal website . :? :wink:

 

[flounder]

Taken from the HuffingPost off of Flounders comment

Total Comments: 47 Friends: 0

47 comments on Huffington post and you have 0 friends Seems you are making the same impression over the liberal website . :? :wink:

tam, tam, tam. your taking up mike's bad habits now. i would have thought you would have been smarter than that, you being a woman and all. you hang around mike, hapolong et al too long, see what happens. when you draw, clear your holster first, before pulling trigger. you will keep your toes that way. poor mike, that guy must not have any toes left :lol: :lol2: :nod:


first off, i accept no friends, and ask for none. i have not been doing this seeking to win a popularity contest. you know that from the mad cow blunder bush and perry got us in down here in Texas and the USA. but i will save that for later.


second off, it does seem folks are listening though. let's see shall we, since tam brought it up and all.




1 - 25

Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme

Commented Aug 25, 2011 at 15:21:46 in Politics

"talk about death panels. this was worse, profiting off the dead teachers, and offering up a pair a shoes in trade. perry is just like a vulture..."


Terry S Singeltary S... Commented 2 days ago in Politics



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Commented on: Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle' Includes Crowded Homeless Shelters, Low-Wage Jobs, Worker Deaths

Terry S Singeltary S... Commented 3 weeks ago in Politics


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Terry S Singeltary S... Commented 1 month ago in Media


Commented on: Glenn Beck On Norway Killings: Children Like 'Hitler Youth,' Breivik 'Just As Bad As Osama Bin Laden' (AUDIO)



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"Domestic terrorism in the United States


http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/D­omestic_te­rrorism_in­_the_Unite­d_States



corporate terrorism


Monday, July 25, 2011

tax cuts for the rich, or highway robbery of the low and middle class


http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­social/Ter­ry_S_Singe­ltary_Sr/j­ohn-boehne­r-debt-cei­ling-plan-­republican­s_n_908343­_99045241.­html


http://www.bus­htaxcu­tsfo­rrich­.blog­spot­.com/



let's look further shall we tam ;



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really tam, you should do you homework before commenting, or you will be like mike, hopeless... :roll:




:tiphat: :wave:

 

[flounder]

Perry's jobs record mixed Private sector promoted on campaign trail, but 1 in 4 jobs is with the government

By PEGGY FIKAC and PATRICK DANNER, STAFF WRITERS Updated 12:19 a.m., Friday, August 26, 2011

AUSTIN - In the Texas Gov. Rick Perry sells on the presidential campaign trail, jobs are created by entrepreneurs reveling in a state government that knows its place.

In the Texas that Perry has presided over since December 2000, the job-creation record is more complicated - and more tied to government.

During Perry's tenure, the combined number of federal, state and local government jobs in Texas has grown by 18.3 percent versus a 10 percent increase in private-sector jobs.

One of every four jobs created in Texas since Perry became the state's chief executive is in the government sector, figures from the Texas Workforce Commission show.

Since the U.S. recession officially ended in June 2009, Texas has added almost 297,000 private-sector jobs, a 3.5 percent increase. Government has added about 31,000, a 1.7 percent clip.

"Strong job creation over this period is the result of a thriving private sector and an increase in government workers. ... We cannot ignore the fact that the government sector has added as many workers as mining over this time, with the U.S. Department of Defense alone adding nearly 5,000 jobs in Texas through military base consolidation," said Jason Frederick, senior economist with bank BBVA Compass. The mining sector includes the energy industry.

Many private jobs

Dale Craymer, the president of the business-based Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, emphasized that most of the growth is in the private sector. Texas added 1,081,900 jobs during Perry's tenure, of which 794,500 were in the private sector.

In July, there were 13.9 Texans for every government worker employed in the state, based on figures from the Texas Workforce Commission and the Census Bureau. By comparison, the ratio was 12.9 residents for every government worker in 2000. In other words, the number of government workers has decreased on a per-capita basis as Texas' population has grown.

"Government, particularly state government, is a small portion of the Texas economy. It has not been the driving force of what has happened in this state economically over the last 10 years," Craymer said. "We have a growing population to serve and, yeah, that does lead to employment growth, but where the governor has been most active has been in trying to attract new businesses to Texas. Not new government."

Perry spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the governor's focus always has been on private-sector jobs.

"That positive growth is the true indicator of economic strength," she said. "That's where his focus remains. Regarding government jobs, those numbers are reflective of a booming population. Our state is growing by about 1,200 people a day. A large majority of that job growth is in the education sector, and it's reflective of a growing population. If you look at job creation numbers, growth in government jobs is small compared to the growth in the private sector."

The state also got about $24 billion in federal stimulus funds under Perry, pumping up overall employment numbers. A total of $6.4 billion of stimulus money was used to plug holes in the two-year state budget that ends Aug. 31. The dry-up of stimulus money compounded a state revenue shortfall facing lawmakers who crafted the next budget, a shortfall that was met without new taxes at the insistence of Perry and other leaders. The resulting cuts will cost 5,727 state government positions over two years and have spread losses to school districts and businesses tied to government spending.

"There will be a ripple effect from the cuts in the state budget, and there will be a further effect if the federal government downsizes," said James Galbraith, professor of government at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Incentives or welfare?

Perry also has gotten the government involved in job creation through his deal-closing Texas Enterprise Fund, which has awarded $439.8 million to 89 companies. The companies receiving awards are obligated to create 59,157 jobs.

Those who agree with Perry on the fund's value say such awards can make a difference, particularly for manufacturing jobs, and particularly since other states also offer incentives.

Critics have pointed to companies that have failed to meet their obligations, forcing repayments, interest and liquidated damages from 30 companies totaling nearly $25.8 million. The limited-government Club for Growth in a just-released "white paper" on Perry called the Enterprise Fund and his Emerging Technology Fund "a form of corporate welfare."

Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed said the incentive funds "have created thousands of jobs and attracted capital investment and research dollars to our state."

Government jobs and programs are only part of Texas' jobs record under Perry, and he emphasizes the rest of the picture in selling himself as the candidate best poised to "get America working again."

Overall, Texas' share of net U.S. employment gains since June 2009 has been 43 percent, according to the Dallas Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics. Looking only at states that have added jobs, Texas' share was 28.9 percent. Perry credits a simple formula: Don't spend all the money; keep taxes low and under control; create a fair, predictable regulatory climate; reform the legal system to protect employers from "frivolous" lawsuits.

Analysts say there is more to the mix, including the good fortune of having a healthy energy industry; a high-tech sector; an export industry that has benefited from Texas' geographical location; state regulations that helped guard against a burst housing bubble; low housing prices; a low cost of living; and policies that predated Perry, including the absence of a state income tax.

'Business friendly'

When it comes to job creation, Rice University political science Professor Mark Jones said, "The one thing that he can clearly take credit for during his tenure is not making the state less friendly to business. ... And he, at the same time, did implement tort reform. Probably more than anything else, he branded Texas as a very business-friendly environment."

Critics warn of looming problems for the Texas economy, including a college completion rate that lags behind the rest of the country; the highest percentage of people without health insurance; and a distinction, shared with Mississippi, of having the largest percentage of people earning at or below minimum wage.

In addition, Texas' unemployment rate reached 8.4 percent in July, its highest since 1987. Though lower than the nation's jobless rate, it is higher than 26 states.

[email protected]

[email protected]

http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Perry-s-jobs-record-mixed-2141809.php


Rick Casey: Did Perry sign a (gasp) income tax?

Did Perry sign an (gasp) income tax?

RICK CASEY , Copyright 2011, HOUSTON CHRONICLE

Published 05:30 a.m., Thursday, August 18, 2011

Imagine this headline making national news in late November, just 10 weeks before the Iowa caucus:

"Texas High Court Rules Perry Created State Income Tax."

How would that play with tea partiers?

A recent lawsuit argues that a tax on businesses passed in 2006 violates the Texas Constitution because it is, in fact though not in name, an income tax.

The law was recommended by a commission appointed by Perry and passed during a special session called by him.

The law itself requires that any challenge be filed directly with the Supreme Court since no facts are in dispute, just constitutional analysis.

The law also requires that the Supreme Court rule on any lawsuit within 120 days of its filing.

The suit was filed July 27 by Austin tax lawyer James Martens on behalf of Allcat Claims Service, a Boerne insurance consulting firm.

I've talked to a number of tax experts. Few think the suit will win.

Some argue the suit has no merit.

Others believe its arguments are legitimate, but the Supreme Court will rule against it anyway.

"The key filing will be an amicus brief from the governor's office," says one tax law expert, who asked not to be named. "It will say: Remember who appointed you."

Six of the nine Supreme Court justices were elected after being appointed by Perry to fill midterm vacancies.

The lawsuit attacks the so-called "business margins tax" on two grounds: that it is a tax on business partnership income that was not approved by the voters as required by the state constitution, and that it unconstitutionally charges higher taxes to Allcap than to similar companies.

The tax was passed in response to a Supreme Court ruling that the state's school finance system was unconstitutional. It said local school property taxes were at maximum legal rates, but provided little more than the money needed to meet state mandates.

With no "meaningful local discretion," the taxes had in effect become a state property tax, which the constitution forbids.

So the Legislature, at Perry's urging, lowered the local property taxes by a third and passed the "business margins tax" to make up the difference.

'The stupid tax' Previously businesses paid a "franchise tax," but it did not apply to partnerships. So many large companies placed themselves under partnerships, which were not covered, that the tax came to be known as "the stupid tax," since only stupid companies paid it.

The new law solved that problem by covering partnerships. It attempts to solve the income tax prohibition by specifying exactly what expenses can be deducted in such a way that some companies could owe taxes even if they lost money.

Since it levies the tax even if there is no income, the argument goes, it is not an income tax.

That didn't convince everyone.

Then-State Comptroller Carol Keeton Strayhorn declared it was an income tax (and also, accurately, that it would fall billions short of covering the property tax reduction). The Financial Accounting Standards Board, which sets accounting rules nationally, classified it as an income tax. But Attorney General Greg Abbott issued an unofficial opinion that it is not an income tax.

Powerful lobbyists The suit's other complaint is that Allcat is not allowed to deduct fees paid to independent claims adjustors that it contracts with. Meanwhile, construction partnerships and realty companies are allowed to deduct payments to independent subcontractors and commissions to independent Realtors.

One tax lobbyist suggested that the main reason for this was that the real estate and construction industries have two of the most powerful lobbying machines in Texas.

Perhaps a legitimate legislative reason for the more favorable treatment will be presented in the attorney general's response to the lawsuit, due by Friday.

[email protected].

http://www.chron.com/news/casey/article/Rick-Casey-Did-Perry-sign-a-gasp-income-tax-2132631.php

 

[flounder]

Sanger ISD Convocation (Where, Rick Perry) [ORIGINAL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKizNsE3Xj0



the only real bad thing if perry wins the republican primary, and then loses to President Obama, perry would come back to Texas, and he has done enough damage to Texas already


for one thing, making Texas a nuclear waste dump for up to 38 states now, and having some of the worst air pollution in the country. gee thanks, that's being a good steward to Texas.


by perry's own standards and thought, he should have to resign ;



Perry would be violating the spirit of an amendment he proposed to the Texas constitution in 1989. Filed that March, the amendment called for "the automatic resignation from office of certain public officials seeking other elective office."

In other words, the 1989 version of Perry would probably think Gov. Perry should resign from office before hopping on that plane to South Carolina.

Perry's amendment [PDF] did not equivocate:

"The candidacy constitutes an automatic resignation of the office then held, and the vacancy created shall be filled pursuant to law in the same manner as other vacancies for the office are filled."



http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/perryamd.pdf



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/12/rick-perry-texas-constitution_n_925516.html



but perry wears flip flops on both feet, flip flopping around like a fish out of water...

 

[hypocritexposer]

Fllounder, has Palin sent you a thank-you card, for all the work you have been doing for her? :lol: :lol:

 

[hopalong]

You relate very good to the fish out of water dont you loser the flipping flounder.You are a real loser arnt you terry?? gwad how your ancestors must be hanging their heads in shame at what you have become


BOOOOO HOOOOOOO anyone got a crying towel for my TERRY S
not really wanting to say wagt the S stands for :wink:

 

[flounder]

Fllounder, has Palin sent you a thank-you card, for all the work you have been doing for her? :lol: :lol:

not yet, but she needs to :wink: :tiphat: :wave:

 

[Tam]

Just so you know TER I very seldom read your posts, let alone your links so I was a bit surprized to see you had no friends when I went to Huffingpost to see what that liberal bias website had to say about your "RESEARCH". BTW not excepting Friends is a good excuse to not having any. :wink: But somehow I doubt not excepting them was the only reason considering all the loving support I have seen you recieve on Ranchers over the years. :lol:

 

[TexasBred]

for one thing, making Texas a nuclear waste dump for up to 38 states now, and having some of the worst air pollution in the country. gee thanks, that's being a good steward to Texas.

Flounder you quote often from the Houston Chronicle...Houston is already one of the largest "waste dumps" in the country and air pollution is one of the least of our worries.

 

[backhoeboogie]

for one thing, making Texas a nuclear waste dump for up to 38 states now, and having some of the worst air pollution in the country. gee thanks, that's being a good steward to Texas.

Flounder you quote often from the Houston Chronicle...Houston is already one of the largest "waste dumps" in the country and air pollution is one of the least of our worries.

I wholeheartedly agree with you TB.

 

[hypocritexposer]

How many think Perry is serious about being President?

IMO, he's the "right wing extremist decoy"

If Palin enters the race at the last minute, she's "Golden". What personal/political attacks are we going to hear, that we haven't already? As far as candidates go.....she has been vetted more so than any other in modern history. (she must have heard my advice on Ranchers)

The "left" is being led into a trap, and a good trap for Conservatives and the rest of the Country, as far as I'm concerned.

When she decides to run, what are they going to attack her on?

 

[backhoeboogie]

When she decides to run, what are they going to attack her on?

EVERYTHING.

If she is wearing white socks under those pants and tennis shoes, she'll be attacked as a racist. It is a no win situation when it comes to the media attacks on Palin. But we all expect the attacks.

 

[Steve]

When she decides to run, what are they going to attack her on?

I would be willing to bet the first would be on her being a working mother...

How could a woman with little children and a disabled child think she could be a president?

and there are other good bets..

I actually do not think she will run, I think she will be an important endorsement, and a possible VP or cabinet appointee..

but I do not think she will run..

 

[hypocritexposer]

When she decides to run, what are they going to attack her on?

I would be willing to bet the first would be on her being a working mother...

How could a woman with little children and a disabled child think she could be a president?

and there are other good bets..

I actually do not think she will run, I think she will be an important endorsement, and a possible VP or cabinet appointee..

but I do not think she will run..

they have already attcked her on everything they could.....she's still standing.

They haven't chased her away yet, and I doubt they will.

When it comes to the "big bad corporations" they want someone like her on their side, but.....

That's also what scares them.......

......she might just end the cronyism and Regulatory Capture, they like to hide.



she has no chance of winning though, just like Reagan had no chance of winning. :lol: :lol:

 

[hopalong]

Wanna bet the reason Terry has no friends is because of his attitude, that in itself would turn off 99% of people he was around, the remaining 1% would be drooling and going wee wee ion their diapers while constantly falling asleep during wind blowing sessions.