For over a decade I have stomped and hollered about a giant taxpayer scam right here in my own county.

It started with something called the Economic Development Council (EDC), which was a “public-private” partnership.  That means they got tax dollars but did not have to account to the taxpayers who footed their bills.

The King Scammer

Some failed businessmen put this deal together.  The first step was to get their buddies elected to Commissioners Court, the body in Texas that determines where all county money is spent and is the single most corrupted political body on earth.  Then they got their buddies on commissioner’s court to give them money for the purported purpose of attacking businesses to the fastest growing county in the United States.  You know, like businesses wouldn’t naturally come where the people are.

The businesses were then given tax abatements to bring their minimum wage, part time jobs to the county.  But to get their abatement, they had to “join” the Economic Development Council to the tune of $10,000 and it was also “expected” that they make large donations to the political funds of the county commissioners who granted the abatement.  The commissioners are then free to spend that money on whatever they want to – pick-up trucks, travel, new wardrobes, dinners out, football tickets …

Meanwhile, taxpayers are pouring money into the Economic Development Council for them to take “recruiting trips” to California coastal cities, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and even freekin’ Paris, France.

More than once they were scammed.  People claimed to be representing big spending businessmen in Hong Kong just to get wined, dined, and taken to sky boxes at the baseball or football stadium.  It’s always fun to watch scammers get scammed.

Now the reason I’m telling you this story is that some fat cat good-ole-boys got to live the high life they were incapable of earning on their own by scamming taxpayers.  And, Ho Boy!, when Rick Perry found out about this, he thought he’d died and went to that great money machine in the sky.

Let’s face it, Rick Perry has never had a real job in his life and he didn’t inherit money.  Yet, magically, he’s a millionaire.

Under Mr. Perry, Texas gives out more of the incentives than any other state, around $19 billion a year, an examination by The New York Times has found. Texas justifies its largess by pointing out that it is home to half of all the private sector jobs created over the last decade nationwide. As the invitation to the fund-raiser boasted: “Texas leads the nation in job creation.”

Yet the raw numbers mask a more complicated reality behind the flood of incentives, the examination shows, and raise questions about who benefits more, the businesses or the people of Texas.

Along with the huge job growth, the state has the third-highest proportion of hourly jobs paying at or below minimum wage. And despite its low level of unemployment, Texas has the 11th-highest poverty rate among states.

And the same deal has emerged in Texas.  Good-ole-boys put together deals to get tax abatements for companies, who then relocated to Texas.  The good-ole-boys then make major donations to Rick Perry, one even chipped in $250,000 to Perry’s Presidential bid, and $4 million overall to Texas state officials.

It’s legitimized kickbacks.

It’s smoke and mirrors and if you have the time to read the complete story, you’ll see why Texas is great for business, bad for taxpayers, and even worse for children.

Thanks to Bud for the heads up.