Texas GOP Party swimming in debt

[sonias]

Texas Tribune 5/14/10
Debt Becomes Her?
Don’t look now, but the Texas GOP, the party of budgetary teetotalers, has been piling up debt like a college kid with his first credit card.

According to Federal Election Commission reports, this isn’t exactly a new development. The Republican Party of Texas has ended every year in the red since 2001. But lately that amount has ballooned from a low of about $70,000 in 2003 to last year’s high of $624,000. Now — a month out from the state party convention where 14,000 delegates will elect the chairman who will guide the faithful for the next two years — the latest FEC report, for the month of April, shows $556,000 in financial obligations. In contrast, the Texas Democratic Party currently carries about $49,000 in debt.

Just who’s responsible for the financial state of the party has flared as a point of contention among the candidates running to be its chair, including the incumbent, Cathie Adams. Adams, who the State Republican Executive Committee chose in October to replace Tina Benkiser when the then-chair left to work on Gov. Rick Perry’s reelection campaign, says that she has put the party's fiscal house in order. "We’re in good shape and getting better," she says, "With a change of personnel and also with prioritizing our spending, we are not only living within our means but paying down the debt since I’ve been here."

The numbers above indicate that’s true. But muttering within GOP ranks — in particular from Adams’ two challengers, Steve Munisteri and Tom Mechler — holds that $556,000 isn't the extent of what the party owes. They both accuse Adams of accounting sleight of hand to make the party's debt appear lower before the chair election and say it will likely rise again afterward.

Munisteri says that the RPT has made the debt appear to go down by transferring money out of two party accounts — which are flush — and into a third account where the party books all of its debt. Three transfers, totaling about $60,000, were made on March 31, according to FEC reports. That number is almost equivalent to the party's reduction in debt since the first of the year.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

The party of "always living within their means" is playing Enron style accounting games. No, I can't believe it. :spray:

Oh by the way, they run the Texas budget books the same way.

:kick:

[Sailing]

1. Something that interesting that contributed.

I was perusing Opensecrets.org a couple of weeks ago and noticed a significant shift in funding to the democrats in this election cycle and the last. Including some reversals in industries and companies that surprised the hell out of me.

I am going to enjoy watching Roberts, Scalia and Alito suck air as they see their recent corporate funding decision backfire on them.

[sonias]

5. It wasn't big oil or Wall Street right?

Those two industries have a lock on the republicans.

[onestepforward]

2. Excellent news! n/t

[hobbit709]

3. If I had a business that got any work from them, I'd want Cash Up Front.

[sonias]

4. Me too

You know they would easily stiff you. Expect you to take 10 cents on the dollar at their bankruptcy hearing. :evilgrin:

[white cloud]

6. A Billion Down

House Legislative Caucus Leader Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, was quick to point out that if the state had taken steps to receive up to $700 million in Race to the Top dollars and $500 million in unemployment insurance cash, then things might not be so bleak. The caveat that he doesn't mention is that these would be dedicated dollars for specific projects, but, still, $1.2 billion is nothing to sneeze at, even in the best of times. Dunnam said, "Accepting the Federal unemployment insurance and education dollars would only have affected Perry's false image as a Washington outsider (never mind the $16 billion in Federal Stimulus funds Perry and the Republican legislature used to balance the current state budget)."

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/News/Blogs/index.html/objID1030051/blogID/

[white cloud]

7. same old tunes