At some point the taxpayers of Indiana are going to have to rise up in revolt at the sight of our public tax dollars being pilfered by political insiders for their own self-enrichment. One of the worst offenders is State Rep. Eric Turner (R-Cicero), the Speaker Pro Tempore of the House who has blatantly exploited his state legislative position to amass tens of millions of dollars for him and his family. The AP's Tom LoBianco reports that our state's Economic Development Corporation is awarding $345,000 to a nursing home project that Turner's family is developing in Terre Haute from which he stands to personally make $1.8 million.
According to LoBianco, the money was what Gov. Pence originally decided to hand out to the state lawmaker's business, Mainstreet Properties, to move its headquarters from Cicero to Carmel. Yes, our fake conservative governor thinks public subsidies should be given to a politically-connected business to move its business offices from one side of Hamilton County to another location within the same county. After public outrage over that announcement, Pence put it on hold until IEDC officials said "a review" of the award showed that no conflict of interest rules were broken by the awarding of money to a business controlled by a guy who exercises control as a member of the House Ways & Means Committee over how much money gets appropriated in the state budget for IEDC. Do they actually expect us to believe that construction of a nursing home is legitimate economic development for the state? Please.
Now that the $345,000 state taxpayer gift to Turner's company is a go, it's being redirected to help pay for the development of a new nursing home Turner's company is building in Terre Haute. Through a high-paid spokesman at a big Indianapolis law firm that lobbies the state legislature, Turner assures the public that his stake in Mainstreet is only as a "passive investor," which is laughable given that everyone knows that he's the one who's been pulling the strings for the business all these years as he continues to build a massive fortune on the backs of Indiana taxpayers while passing himself off to the voting public as a "fiscal conservative" and "devout Christian." An assistant professor at Indiana University, Josh Perry, tells LoBianco that deals like this "erode the public trust" in government." Yeah, no sh__.
Further investigations needed in Washington DC and State US Atty. re: the owners, players, and administrators and the 8-10 years of abuse and harm they have caused individuals that have known of these matters and cause harm to them for knowing too much and trying to squelch this injustice. The whole story needs to come out Gary. Great you got notice of this today.
ReplyDeleteTen years of "Republican" majorities have yielded more government & higher taxes.
ReplyDeleteCrony capitalism is fascism; which doesn't end well.