Reading Russ Baker, "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's invisible government, and the hidden history of the last fifty years", certainly puts some perspective to events in Florida. This book was published nearly four years ago, but it is relevant today -- perhaps even more so, given the upcoming November elections.
The obvious connection between Baker's research and Miami is the proximity of Bush loyalists and intelligence operatives to Cuban American "plumbers" who participated in Watergate, that eventually brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon and paved way for the political ascent of George H.W. Bush. (You can purchase the book from the website of Books and Books, here.)
Deep in Baker's book I found a fascinating story of interest to critics of the Marlins Stadium extravaganza: how George W. Bush became part owner of a baseball stadium in Texas that paved his way forward to the governor's mansion.
It is excerpted here: (click 'read more')
"Financially, the Rangers deal was basically about real estate. By getting the city to build them a new stadium, Bush and his partners increased the team's book value from $83 million to $138 million. This required convincing the city's taxpayers that they would lose the team if they did not pay up for the stadium. To raise $191 million it would cost to build the Ballpark at Arlington, residents were asked to add a half cent to what was already one of the nation's highest sales tax rates.
According to attorney Glenn Sodd, W.'s group helped egg along Arlington by leaking a story that Dallas was competing for the team and had offered to build them a stadium. "We found out that this was untrue," said Sodd. In any case, Arlington Mayor Richard Greene used the supposed threat to rush a deal through.
Bush put aside his much-touted antitax, free-market principles just long enough to get the city of Arlington to increase taxes on ordinary people there in order to build a stadium for-- and then give both the stadium and the land underneath it to--Bush and his partners.
The subsidized land and stadium windfall was engineered at a time when Poppy was president and the savings and loan industry was in a free fall, with real estate being dumped for a pittance. To get the land, the new owners went to governmental agency liquidators and banks handling land liquidations and snapped up the property. "Essentlly, Bush's daddy sold him the property for pennies on the dollar," said Sodd. What they couldn't get on the market, they grabbed with government assistance.
Bush and his partners wanted over 200 acres of land to develop an entertainment complex around the seventeen acre stadium. So they used the state's power of eminent domain to force out landowners without the inconvenience of free market negotiation. As New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston discovered, the Texas Republican Party had already expressed offical disapproval of such activity, having stipulated: "Public money (including taxes or bond guarantees) or public powers (such as eminent domain) should not be used to fund or implement so-called private enterprise projects."
W. would later campaign for governor as a defender of property rights. Speaking to the Texas Association of Business, he said: "I understand full well the value of private property and its importance not only in our state but in capitalism in general. And I will do everything I can to defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am the governor of this state."
So the Rangers deal was essentially predicated on public funding through a tax increase and the seizure of private land through eminent domain. One attorney called it, "welfare for billionaires". To make money, the owners needed a new stadium, and they needed someone else to pay for it." (Page 358, Family of Secrets)
The obvious connection between Baker's research and Miami is the proximity of Bush loyalists and intelligence operatives to Cuban American "plumbers" who participated in Watergate, that eventually brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon and paved way for the political ascent of George H.W. Bush. (You can purchase the book from the website of Books and Books, here.)
Deep in Baker's book I found a fascinating story of interest to critics of the Marlins Stadium extravaganza: how George W. Bush became part owner of a baseball stadium in Texas that paved his way forward to the governor's mansion.
It is excerpted here: (click 'read more')
"Financially, the Rangers deal was basically about real estate. By getting the city to build them a new stadium, Bush and his partners increased the team's book value from $83 million to $138 million. This required convincing the city's taxpayers that they would lose the team if they did not pay up for the stadium. To raise $191 million it would cost to build the Ballpark at Arlington, residents were asked to add a half cent to what was already one of the nation's highest sales tax rates.
According to attorney Glenn Sodd, W.'s group helped egg along Arlington by leaking a story that Dallas was competing for the team and had offered to build them a stadium. "We found out that this was untrue," said Sodd. In any case, Arlington Mayor Richard Greene used the supposed threat to rush a deal through.
Bush put aside his much-touted antitax, free-market principles just long enough to get the city of Arlington to increase taxes on ordinary people there in order to build a stadium for-- and then give both the stadium and the land underneath it to--Bush and his partners.
The subsidized land and stadium windfall was engineered at a time when Poppy was president and the savings and loan industry was in a free fall, with real estate being dumped for a pittance. To get the land, the new owners went to governmental agency liquidators and banks handling land liquidations and snapped up the property. "Essentlly, Bush's daddy sold him the property for pennies on the dollar," said Sodd. What they couldn't get on the market, they grabbed with government assistance.
Bush and his partners wanted over 200 acres of land to develop an entertainment complex around the seventeen acre stadium. So they used the state's power of eminent domain to force out landowners without the inconvenience of free market negotiation. As New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston discovered, the Texas Republican Party had already expressed offical disapproval of such activity, having stipulated: "Public money (including taxes or bond guarantees) or public powers (such as eminent domain) should not be used to fund or implement so-called private enterprise projects."
W. would later campaign for governor as a defender of property rights. Speaking to the Texas Association of Business, he said: "I understand full well the value of private property and its importance not only in our state but in capitalism in general. And I will do everything I can to defend the power of private property and private property rights when I am the governor of this state."
So the Rangers deal was essentially predicated on public funding through a tax increase and the seizure of private land through eminent domain. One attorney called it, "welfare for billionaires". To make money, the owners needed a new stadium, and they needed someone else to pay for it." (Page 358, Family of Secrets)
No comments:
Post a Comment