From: rja@redwood26.cray.com (Russ Anderson)
Subject: Bush's House
Originator: rja@redwood26
Organization: The 1991 World Champion Minnesota Twins!
Date: 19 Aug 92 13:15:17 CDT


From the Minneasoplis Star Tribune, Wed, Aug 19, 1992, p9a:

	Bushes' first love: Texas or tax cut?
	-------------------------------------
	By Carol Byrne (national correspondent)
	Houston, Texas

	[...]
	Such is life at the Houstonain Hotel, legal residence
	and home of George and Barbara Bush.

	Not too far away, across Buffalo Bayou and through the
	tree-shaded blocks of upscale ramblers, lies the vacant
	lot the Bushes bought for their retirement house.  But
	it's only 33 feet wide; perhaps a retirement trailer?

	The Bushes haven't owned a house in Houston since 1981,
	and spend almost all their free time at their 26-room
	seaside mansion in Kennebunkport, Maine.
	[...]
	When the Bushes arrived in Houston this week for the 
	Republican national convention, the Houstonian had their
	590-square-foot, three-room suite waiting.  It's not
	that big a job to get it ready - just rummage around
	in the storage closet and unearth the box of Bush
	family photographs to hang on the wall.

	The Houstonian is a discreetly modern hotel built in
	1982, low and sleek and catering primary to buisness
	conferences - few traveling salesmen stop here.

	For all the hotel's up-scale ambience, the president
	can't escape economic reality when he stays here.  
	The Houstonian's owners filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy
	protection in February.
	[...]
	Over at the hotel the going rate for the Bush suite 
	is $600 a night, but the White House reportedly has
	worked out a special price of $264 a day.  If Bush is
	in town on presidential business, it's paid by the 
	government; if it's political business, the bill goes
	to the Republican party.
	[...]
	The Bushes spent over three nights in the suite all
	last year - the same amount of time they spent in 
	Japan.  When the Bushes are not in residence, their
	rooms are available for other guests.

	"It's not just for anybody", said Burdick.  "Mostly 
	they're included in a package deal for a wedding party
	or a reception or something like that."

	That may be because back in 1988, 200 local Democrats	
	rented the rooms and served bologna sandwitches to
	make fun of the Bushes Texas residency.

	The Democrats were back up to their irreverent behavior
	this week, when former Texas agricultural commissioner
	Jim Hightower sponsored a "rolling thunder Texas Bushwacker"
	tour that rolled by the Houstonian and went on to the
	$79,000 Bush retirement lot at 9 West Oak Lane South.

	"The overall message is that the rich are different than
	you or me - they don't pay taxes," said Hightower from
	under his white straw cowboy hat.  "Bush passes through
	Texas to bypass taxes."

	Hightower based his charges on a Money magazine article 
	detailing how Bush has claimed residency in both Maine
	and Texas at different times, apparently to cut his tax bill.

	The first time occured after the Bushes sold their Houston
	home in 1981 for a profit of $596,000.  They tried to roll
	their profit over to Kennebunkport, saying it was their
	principal home, but hte IRS ruled against them and they
	had to pay $170,000 in capital gains taxes.

	Four years later, as part of a suit contesting his right
	to vote in Houston, Bush signed an affidavit saying that 
	Houston was his perminent hame and he intended to return
	to build a home on the lot.

	But Hightower says the intent was to avoid paying Maine
	taxes.  Seconding that opinion was George Christie,
	executive director of the Maine People's Alliance in
	Portland.

	"We're trying to recover $224,000 in taxes George Bush 
	owes the state of Maine," Christie said.  "We all know
	he lives there and we're outraged about the taxes.  It's
	not fair and it shows a lack of character." [...]

	The Bush lot is much smaller that any of the others in
	neighborhood, with less square footage than two tennis 
	courts.  It's a long and very narrow rectangle - 33 feet
	wide by 160 feet deep, dotted with magnolias and chestnut
	trees.  In fact, it's so narrow that the county appraiser
	ruled in 1990 that it was too small to accomidate a normal-
	sized house.

	White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater called the tax charges
	nonsense.  Barbara Bush told the local papers on Sunday 
	that the lot may be small, but "it's big enough for us."
	She insists that the Bushes still plan to build there once
	they leave the White House - sooner or later.


-- 
Russ Anderson    |  Disclaimer: Any statements are my own and do not reflect
------------------              upon my employer or anyone else.  (c) 1992
EX-Twins' Jack Morris, 10 innings pitched, 0 runs (World Series MVP!)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush