N.C. Governor Roy Cooper Caught with Illegal Slush Fund

Democrats are notorious for setting up slush funds as a means to advance their political agenda. The Obama administration extorted money from corporations and used those proceeds in the EPA, Justice Department and various other agencies to seed special interest groups who would then sue the very agencies who funded them. These lawsuits were as choreographed as the Ziegfield Follies and they did it without showing any leg, thanks to the progressive-media industrial complex.



North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper just got caught emulating this paradigm. Of course our corrupt, local media didn’t report this until the Civitas Institute - a conservative think tank - filed an ethics complaint and the Carolina Journal reported it. Here is an excerpt:


The $57.8 million discretionary fund the Atlantic Coast Pipeline operators planned to pay to an escrow Gov. Roy Cooper would control was in fact negotiated between the pipeline’s operators and a series of private parties. It remains unclear whether Cooper’s involvement was legal.


In his weekly syndicated column (link to text here), Tom Campbell, host of the UNC-TV public-affairs program “NC SPIN,” said the agreement was worked out in July 2017 at the offices of the North Carolina Farm Bureau and, presumably, presented to Cooper later. Cooper’s attorney signed the agreement on the governor’s behalf, but it did not receive legislative approval.


Of course, Governor Cooper didn’t get legislative approval. Do they ever? That’s why they call it a slush fund.


The editorial board at the Charlotte Observer is having a hard time justifying this sordid affair. But as usual, they soldier through. Here is an excerpt:


Companies don’t typically fork over tens of millions of dollars voluntarily. And while there is no proof the permit approval was contingent on the fund, it appears that way to many. At a minimum, the discussions were clearly going on simultaneously.


But perhaps Cooper’s biggest mistake was putting the fund under his personal control. The Memorandum of Understanding creating it says “the funds shall be allocated pursuant to the guidelines and directives set forth in a subsequent executive order” to be issued by Cooper.


That understandably alarmed Republicans. Cooper assured everyone after the fact that he never intended to personally decide where the money would go, and that third-party experts would make those decisions, but that’s not spelled out in the agreement. It should have been. And while at least one intended use of the money – environmental mitigation – is sound, the others – economic development and renewable energy – are broad enough to leave room for pork-barrel spending.


The Constitution says that state funds can be appropriated only by the General Assembly. These looked a lot like state funds, and Cooper could have negotiated the fund but let the legislature appropriate the money for the purposes spelled out in the agreement.


All that said, Republicans have gone way overboard by suggesting corruption. There is no indication the agreement would have directly benefited Cooper in any way. And legislators may hurt the environment in the pipeline’s counties by moving the money from its original purposes to public schools. For all the Cain that Republicans raise, the state is clearly better off with the energy companies paying $58 million to the state than not. Would Republicans have preferred that the state not receive that money?


And there it is. I would prefer companies were able to conduct business in North Carolina without being shaken down by corrupt politicians trying to shove their progressive agendas down our throats. But I guess that’s asking too much just as it’s too much to ask this rag to stop apologizing for corrupt politicians that have “D’s” behind their name.


Source:

https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/constitutional-questions-surrounding-57-8-million-pipeline-deal-persist/


https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/ncga-dissatisfied-with-governors-response-to-pipeline-questions/

https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/breaking-pipeline-deal-made-between-acp-other-parties-with-cooper-sign-off/?blm_aid=54751



https://www.nccivitas.org/2018/civitas-files-ethics-complaints-governor-cooper/



http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article200636304.html


http://dailysignal.com/2017/10/25/obama-justice-departments-1-billion-slush-fund-boosted-liberal-groups/

Obama Mafia Had DOJ Slush Fund

We used to joke that the Obama administration was basically a Chicago crime syndicate that took over the White House.  Since the Democratic mafia was thrown out of office, the country is finding out how they corrupted federal government agencies.  The EPA was busted for having a slush fund for environmental groups. The same is true of the Department of Justice. 

The Obama administration funneled billions of dollars to activist organizations through a Department of Justice slush fund scheme, according to congressional investigators.

“It’s clear partisan politics played a role in the illicit actions that were made,” Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, told Fox News. “The DOJ is the last place this should have occurred.”

 Findings spearheaded by the House Judiciary Committee point to a process shrouded in secrecy whereby monies were distributed to a labyrinth of nonprofit organizations involved with grass-roots activism.

“Advocates for big government and progressive power are using the Justice Department to extort money from corporations,” Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton told Fox News. “It’s a shakedown. It’s corrupt, pure and simple.”

The Obama administration used the DOJ and other government agencies to extort money from banks and other businesses to fund progressive activists groups like The National Council of La Raza.  In the real world this would be considered a crime, but not if you’re a Democrat.  We truly are living in two Americas.  

Source:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/01/gop-wants-to-eliminate-shadowy-doj-slush-fund-bankrolling-leftist-groups.html

The Democratic Party's Big Education Slush Fund

The Democratic Party seems to have its hand in all sorts of taxpayer funded pies. The green energy boondoggle is the latest slush fund that is being exposed. But the big Slurpee is education.

We’ve all witnessed the hysteria by the teachers union when republican state legislators threw down the gauntlet on pension and health care funding. Democrats fled their states so as to prevent a quorum. So exactly how much money is involved in Big Education? Doug Ross Journal published a startling demographic:

And that was just for high school students. Carolina Journal focused their article on Big University Education in North Carolina:

University finances

Despite the economic downturn, university funding and spending grew in 2011.

• State and federal support for higher education in North Carolina rose 6 percent between academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11.

• Two of the 99 American institutions that charged more than $50,000 for tuition, fees, room, and board in 2010-11 are located in North Carolina: Wake Forest University ($50,980) and Duke University ($51,865).

• Wake Forest ranked 5th in the nation in licensing income (income from patents) in 2009 at $95,636,362.

• Average tuition and fees at public four-year institutions in North Carolina (2009-10) were $4,559. At private four-year institutions, average tuition and fees were $23,788.

• Duke has the largest endowment in the state: $4,823,572,000.
Academics

Several North Carolina universities were among the nation’s big spenders on scientific research. Not surprisingly, those schools also received considerable funding from federal grants.

• Four of the top 100 schools in total spending for science (2009) are located in North Carolina: Duke ($805 million), UNC-Chapel Hill ($646 million), North Carolina State University ($380 million), and Wake Forest ($201 million).

• Four of the top institutions in federal dollars for science (2009) are located in North Carolina: Duke ($438 million), UNC-Chapel Hill ($431 million), Wake Forest ($144 million), and N.C. State ($135 million).

• In fiscal years 2008 and 2009, UNC-Chapel Hill constructed the most new space for science and engineering research in the country: 355,000 square feet.

• Total spending on research and development by North Carolina universities was $2.16 million in 2010-11.


I wonder how many of those federal dollars were earmarked for global warming and climate sciences. And I wonder how much money democratic politicians received from the faculty of these bastions of higher education in the form of campaign donations.

Source: http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=8293

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2011/09/top-five-reasons-to-abolish-department.html

Democratic Party's Green Energy Slush Fund

Is it any wonder that green energy is all the rage in Democratic Party circles? Anybody who is somebody is in on the scam. Solar energy companies are cleaning up on guaranteed loans issued by the Department of Energy, if they are politically connected. How so do you ask? Well, here is an excerpt from the Weekly Standard:

SolarReserve LLC, a closely held renewable energy developer, received a $737 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee to build a solar-thermal project in Nevada.
The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes project, near Tonopah, Nevada, will use the sun’s heat to create steam that drives a turbine, the agency said today in a e-mailed statement. SolarReserve is based in Santa Monica, California.

On SolarReserve's website is a list of "investment partners," including the "PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC." As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG's number two is none other than "Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."

And if you’re from Missouri, I’ve got something to show you:

And for good measure, it's also noteworthy that Obama is about to hold a big money fundraiser at the home of Tom Carnahan in St. Louis:

Carnahan, a member of the prominent Missouri Democratic family, has been tapped by the Obama campaign as its chief Missouri fundraiser. He is chairman of the board of Wind Capital Group, a wind energy company that makes it corporate headquarters in St. Louis. He formerly was president and CEO of the company.

Last year, Wind Capital's Lost Creek Farm facility in northwest Missouri received a $107 million tax credit from the Treasury Department, among many such wind operations receiving support from from stimulus funds.

Tom Carnahan is the son of former Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and former U.S. senator Jean Carnahan. He's also the brother of current Missouri secretary of state, Robin Carnahan

Those Carnahans sure are a busy family; busy screwing over the taxpayers.

I wonder if the convenient store 7/11 can come up with a new Slurpee in honor of the Democratic Party’s new slush fund. I can envision something green and somewhat energetic.

Source: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/crony-capitalism-737-million-green-jobs-loan-given-nancy-pelosis-brother-law_594593.html