http://www.mollyivins.com/showMisc.asp?FileName=970509_f1.htmGeorge W. Bush loves baseball. And why not? After all, baseball has been very good to the governor. When it comes to power, the governor is a true triple-threat. Consider his record: (1) His initial baseball investment of $600,000 carries the current potential of a 2,500 percent return. (2) Through savvy P.R. and political maneuvering, he and his partners have persuaded a city and the state to directly subsidize a facility for their business. (3) Not content with taxpayer subsidies, he and his fellow owners have also successfully used the power of government to take land from other private citizens so it could be used for their own private purposes.
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Yet whether the public interest issue is taxes, size of government, property rights, or public subsidies of private sports ventures, Bush’s personal ownership interest in the Texas Rangers baseball team has been wildly at odds with his publicly declared positions on those issues. And ongoing litigation over the Ballpark deal has revealed documents showing that beginning in 1990, the Rangers management—which included Bush as a managing general partner—conspired to use the government’s power of eminent domain to further its private business interests.
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But local approval wasn’t the only hurdle the Rangers had to clear. They needed legislative approval to create a financing authority that could issue bonds. In April of 1991, the Rangers shepherded through the Legislature a bill written by Arlington State Representative Kent Grusendorf, which would create the Arlington Sports Facilities Development Authority, a quasi-governmental entity endowed with the power of eminent domain. Shortly after the bill was signed into law by former Governor Ann Richards, three parcels of land located near the stadium, nearly thirteen acres in all, were condemned by the ASFDA. The land was owned by two companies, Ramshire and Clairwood, created for the benefit of a series of trusts. Those trusts, in turn, benefit the heirs of television magnate Curtis Mathes.
Among court documents is an unsigned Rangers memo by a team representative, discussing the history of the Mathes tracts. The representative notes that in his first contact with the Mathes family concerning the land, on November 6, 1990, "I was not well received." The memo goes on to say that the ASFDA’s appraiser assigned the land a value of $3.16 per square foot, for a total value of $1.515 million. "An offer was made by the Authority at this price. This offer was rejected & the Sellers countered with $2,835,000.00 for all three tracts, i.e.: $5.31 p.s.f." In mid-December, the ASFDA offered the Mathes heirs just $817,220 for the three tracts, far below even what the ASFDA’s first appraiser had suggested. The Mathes family refused to sell, and the ASFDA seized the land through eminent domain.
Glenn Sodd, a Corsicana attorney who represents the Mathes family, says he has found little evidence that Bush was directly involved in the decisions to condemn the property for the stadium. But he adds, "What happened to my folks was pretty audacious. It was the first time in Texas history that the power of eminent domain has been used to assist a private organization like a baseball team."
Make no mistake, the corporatist-in-chief LOVES this SCOTUS ruling.
Make sure when the Republicans start to point at "liberal judges" you fight back with the FACTS about who REALLY benefits.
For the record: George W. bought his 1.8% interest in the Rangers for about $600,000 (of which $500,000 he borrowed). When he sold his interest in the team in 1998 he made 14.9 Million dollars off the deal.
The stadium was built almost entirely by taxpayer dollars. The 60 million dollars in costs covered by the team were raised by raising ticket prices.
Of course, George talks like a small-government Republican...saying things like:
"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." -- George W. Bush, October 1994
and things like:
"We must change a welfare system that has created dependency on government. I know full well, like most Texans know, that dependency on government saps the soul and drains the spirit."Interesting words from a welfare recipient. But maybe government dependency does sap the soul and drains the spirit. We know 'ole George has neither.
But when the rubber meets the road, his corporatist ideology is easy to spot.
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