Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: "Rick Perry's Crony Capitalism Problem" (WSJ)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576428262897285614.html
AUGUST 13, 2011
Rick Perry's Crony Capitalism Problem
The presidential candidate's signature economic development initiative 
has raised questions among conservatives.
By CHARLES DAMERON
Gov. Rick Perry's presidential pitch goes something like this: During 
one of the worst recessions in American history, he's kept his state 
"open for business." In the last two years, Texas created over a quarter 
of a million jobs, meaning that the state's 8% unemployment rate is 
substantially lower than the rest of the nation's. The governor credits 
this exceptional growth to things like low taxes and tort reform.
It's a strong message. But one of the governor's signature economic 
development initiatives—the Texas Emerging Technology Fund—has lately 
raised serious questions among some conservatives.
The Emerging Technology Fund was created at Mr. Perry's behest in 2005 
to act as a kind of public-sector venture capital firm, largely to 
provide funding for tech start-ups in Texas. Since then, the fund has 
committed nearly $200 million of taxpayer money to fund 133 companies. 
Mr. Perry told a group of CEOs in May that the fund's "strategic 
investments are what's helping us keep groundbreaking innovations in the 
state." The governor, together with the lieutenant governor and the 
speaker of the Texas House, enjoys ultimate decision-making power over 
the fund's investments.
National Review correspondent Robert Costa on last night's GOP 
presidential debate and Saturday's Iowa straw poll.
Among the companies that the Emerging Technology Fund has invested in is 
Convergen LifeSciences, Inc. It received a $4.5 million grant last 
year—the second largest grant in the history of the fund. The founder 
and executive chairman of Convergen is David G. Nance.
In 2009, when Mr. Nance submitted his application for a $4.5 million 
Emerging Technology Fund grant for Convergen, he and his partners had 
invested only $1,000 of their own money into their new company, 
according to documentation prepared by the governor's office in February 
2010. But over the years, Mr. Nance managed to invest a lot more than 
$1,000 in Mr. Perry. Texas Ethics Commission records show that Mr. Nance 
donated $75,000 to Mr. Perry's campaigns between 2001 and 2006.
The regional panel that reviewed Convergen's application turned down the 
company's $4.5 million request when it presented its proposal on Oct. 7, 
2009. But Mr. Nance appealed that decision directly to a statewide 
advisory committee (of which Mr. Nance was once a member) appointed by 
Mr. Perry. Just eight days later, on Oct. 15, a subcommittee unanimously 
recommended approval by the full statewide committee. On Oct. 29, the 
full advisory committee unanimously recommended the approval of 
Convergen's application. When asked why the advisory committee felt 
comfortable recommending Convergen's grant, Lucy Nashed, a spokesperson 
for Mr. Perry, said that the committee "thoroughly vetted the company."
Starting in 2008, Mr. Perry also appropriated approximately $2 million 
in federal taxpayer money through the auspices of the Wagner-Peyser 
Act—a federal works program founded during the New Deal and overseen in 
Texas by Mr. Perry's office—to a nonprofit launched by Mr. Nance called 
Innovate Texas. The nonprofit was meant to help entrepreneurs by linking 
them to investors. It began receiving funding on Dec. 31, 2008, soon 
after Mr. Nance's previous company, Introgen Therapeutics, declared 
bankruptcy on Dec. 3. According to state records, Mr. Nance paid himself 
$250,000 for the two years he ran Innovate Texas. Innovate Texas, whose 
listed phone number is not a working number, could not be reached for 
comment. (Two phone calls left for Mr. Nance at Convergen's offices went 
unreturned.)
ThromboVision, Inc., a medical imaging company, was also the recipient 
of an award from the Emerging Technology Fund: It received $1.5 million 
in 2007. Charles Tate, a major Perry contributor, served as the chairman 
of a state committee that reviewed ThromboVision's application for state 
funding, and Mr. Tate voted to give ThromboVision the public money. One 
month after ThromboVision received notification that it would receive a 
$1.5 million state grant in April 2007, Mr. Tate invested his own money 
in ThromboVision, according to the Dallas Morning News. The Texas paper 
later found that by 2010 Mr. Tate owned a total of 200,000 preferred 
shares in ThromboVision.
View Full Image
Associated Press
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
According to a Texas state auditor's report, ThromboVision failed to 
submit required annual reports to the fund from 2008 through 2010, when 
the company went bankrupt. The report noted the tech fund's managers 
were "unaware of ThromboVision, Inc.'s bankruptcy until after the 
bankruptcy had been reported in a newspaper." ThromboVision's bankruptcy 
filing revealed not only that Mr. Tate had been a preferred shareholder 
in ThromboVision, but so had prominent Perry supporter Charles Miller, 
who owned 250,000 preferred shares in the company and has donated 
$125,000 to the governor's campaigns. Three phone calls and an email 
seeking Mr. Tate's side of the story went unreturned.
All told, the Dallas Morning News has found that some $16 million from 
the tech fund has gone to firms in which major Perry contributors were 
either investors or officers, and $27 million from the fund has gone to 
companies founded or advised by six advisory board members. The tangle 
of interests surrounding the fund has raised eyebrows throughout the 
state, especially among conservatives who think the fund is a misplaced 
use of taxpayer dollars to start with.
"It is fundamentally immoral and arrogant," says state representative 
David Simpson, a tea party-backed freshman from Longview, two hours east 
of Dallas. The fund "opened the door to the appearance of impropriety, 
if not actual impropriety."
In April, the state auditor's office called for greater transparency in 
the fund's management, and some legislators began looking for ways that 
the fund might be reformed. With the state facing a $27 billion budget 
shortfall in the last legislative session, Mr. Simpson filed a motion in 
the Texas House in May to shutter the fund and redirect the money to 
other portions of the budget. That measure passed 89-37 to cheers from 
the chamber. But the fund was kept alive by the legislature's conference 
committee. The fund currently has $140 million to spend, according to 
the governor's office.
Michael Quinn Sullivan, the president of Texans for Fiscal 
Responsibility, sees in the Emerging Technology Fund a classic example 
of the perils of government pork. "The problem with these kinds of funds 
is that even when they're used with the best of intentions, it looks 
bad," says Mr. Sullivan. "You're taking from the average taxpayer and 
giving to someone who has a connection with government officials."
Mr. Dameron is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal.
-- 
Namib
"La force ne fait ni raison ni droit ; mais il est peut-être impossible 
de s'en passer, pour faire respecter le droit et la raison" (Saint-Just)

 giving to someone who has a connection with government officials."
insomma, come Craxi che regalò le frequenze tv al Berlusca. Tafazzi li
annusa da migliaia di km di distanza...