Sen. Luther Strange’s (R-AL) swamp pal, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), is set to receive more money each year from Alabama taxpayers from the sweetheart deal in an Alabama retail development arranged by a law firm that is a big donor to Strange’s Senate campaign than he receives from his salary as a United States senator.
Under the terms of that sweetheart deal signed off on by the Mobile City Council and the Mobile County Commission, Corker, as a 13 percent owner of McGowin Park Incentive, LLC, a Delaware Corporation, receives a prorated split of that entity’s hefty sales tax rebate from retail purchases made at stores in McGowin Park retail center in Mobile Alabama. The center is a huge development opened in 2015 of more than 24 stores, including “Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream, HomeGoods, Ross Dress for Less, Hobby Lobby, Best Buy, Old Navy, Petco, Ashley Furniture HomeStore and Dollar Tree,” as one publication noted, strategically located right off heavily traveled I-65.
That rebate is substantial; 28 percent of all city sales tax collected and 30 percent of all county sales tax collected from stores in the center is paid out to McGowin Park Incentive, LLC, in two securities known as City of Mobile Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013 and Mobile County Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013.
Corker received $40,459 in 2015 and $108,682 in income from City of Mobile Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013, and Mobile County Limited Obligation Project Revenue Warrants, Series 2013, according to financial reports he filed with the United States Senate. He is scheduled to receive $155,500 in income from those warrants in 2017; $168,808 in 2018; $192,000 in 2019; and $192,000 a year for the next 15-and-a-half years.
During the twenty years in which he receives money from this deal, Corker is expected to receive more than $3 million of the Mobile, Alabama, city and county sales tax revenue paid by customers who make purchases at the McGowin Park retail center in Mobile.
Corker’s current annual salary as a United States senator is $174,000 per year.
Does it say what Corker paid for his "investment"? Was it available to members of the investing public? Or was it a pay-to-play scheme?
The story does not say what he invested.
I doubt it was available to the "investing public." That requires a detailed and expensive disclosure of the full details, risks, audited statements, projections of experts so that when it goes bad, nobody will be able to say they were mislead. There are many more small deals available only to "accredited investors" who have larger net worths, and presumably the experience and sophistication to evaluate the risks without the massive disclosures a public offering entails.
I imagine that in the course of financing this development, the city in effect "sold" the right to future tax rebates for a cash investment, maybe to fund necessary public improvements traffic aids, street widening, etc.
These shopping centers can be a real blessing to a city. I remember that Price Club had its second location in Santee, CA. As it outgrew that location, it started planning to move. The city tried to impose a bunch of extraneous requirements to approve the new location, parks, little league fields. Price Club started looking at locations outside the city, and it was disclosed that sales tax from that Price Club was some huge percentage of the ciry's revenue, like 63% or something. Rather than risk losing that revenue stream, Santee figured out a way to approve the new location without the inerous requirements.
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
September 27, 2017, 08:26 AM
parabellum
chellim, I'm growing weary of your attitude towards the man that SAVED YOU!!!!!
September 27, 2017, 08:28 AM
chellim1
Unlike Shapiro, I voted for Trump.
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor
September 27, 2017, 08:29 AM
parabellum
So what?? Are you going to tell me that my eyes have been deceiving me for all these months?
September 27, 2017, 08:36 AM
JALLEN
I enjoy these conjecturers, these prognosticators, the chicken entrail readers who come along on the heels of every seemingly significant event and offer the analysis, the deeper meanings, the portends of the future.
Have any of them ever been accurate? Or is it just so many column inches that must be filled?
Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.
When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
September 27, 2017, 08:37 AM
chellim1
No I am not.
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor
September 27, 2017, 08:40 AM
parabellum
Then don't try to tell me that you not voting for Hillary Clinton can be intrepreted as support for Donald Trump, and I repeat what I said to you: I am growing weary of your attitude towards the man that saved you and this nation.
Ted Cruz is not POTUS. Get over it.
September 27, 2017, 08:46 AM
chellim1
Ted Cruz will never be POTUS. I'm over it.
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor
September 27, 2017, 09:40 AM
Pipe Smoker
I've never understood why President Trump supported Strange. Was it a pragmatic calculation? Figuring that Strange would do better against the Democrat candidate?
Serious about crackers.
September 27, 2017, 09:41 AM
oddball
Interesting stuff.
Moore, a MAGA type of candidate, was backed by Steve Bannon. Strange, the establishment candidate, was backed by Trump. The media rails against Strange just because he was associated with Trump, no other reason needed. Moore wins, and the media is delighted, treating Moore's win as Trump's loss. Trump then states that Moore is a fine man and has no problem working with him, that everything is groovy.
Interesting
"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965
“I would like to congratulate Roy Moore on his victory in Alabama tonight,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell added that Moore “ran a spirited campaign centered around dissatisfaction with the progress made in Washington” — not acknowledging his own role as senate majority leader or support for Strange.
“I share that frustration,” McConnell said, pledging to support Trump’s agenda, noting it was what “the American people voted for last November.”
“We look forward to Judge Moore’s help enacting that agenda when he arrives,”
McConnell pledged to back Moore in the general election scheduled for December 12 against Democrat Doug Jones and urged those active in the primary election to “redouble” their efforts in the general election.
Moore ran on an anti-establishment platform that rebuked McConnell and establishment Republicans in Washington.
September 27, 2017, 12:18 PM
HRK
quote:
McConnell added that Moore “ran a spirited campaign centered around dissatisfaction with the lack of progress made in Washington” — not acknowledging his own role as senate majority leader or support for Strange.
More denial from McDumbass, its your LACK OF progress we are done with..
Expect more replacements in the house and senate of establishment politicians.
September 27, 2017, 12:24 PM
chellim1
quote:
Originally posted by HRK:
quote:
McConnell added that Moore “ran a spirited campaign centered around dissatisfaction with the lack of progress made in Washington” — not acknowledging his own role as senate majority leader or support for Strange.
More denial from McDumbass, its your LACK OF progress we are done with...
Exactly.... McConnell is trying to deflect... but HE IS what people were voting against.
Bannon: McConnell Is 'Corrupt,' 'Incompetent,' 'Permanent Political Class'
Listen to Bannon on Hannity:
"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." -- Justice Janice Rogers Brown
"The United States government is the largest criminal enterprise on earth." -rduckwor
September 27, 2017, 12:25 PM
ChicagoSigMan
I am so tired of McConnell. If that fool doesn't recognize that he is a huge part of the problem in Washington, then he is dumber than he appears.
I really hope he can get primaried and booted by someone that will fight to win on Trump's agenda.
September 27, 2017, 12:39 PM
Il Cattivo
^^^ That's what happened last time. So what did Pushing Turtle do? Why, he cut a deal and had congregants of liberal black churches bussed in to vote in the Republican primary so "that nasty conservative" he was running against wouldn't take "his" seat in the Senate.
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker: I've never understood why President Trump supported Strange. Was it a pragmatic calculation? Figuring that Strange would do better against the Democrat candidate?
It could've been a pragmatic calculation that McConnell might owe him something if Strange collected the nomination. In political terms, Strange would have certainly owed Trump.
quote:
"I share that frustration," McConnell said
Oh, so are we now in enough trouble to be forced to catch a clue? In my world, Pushing Turtle, people tend to come to that conclusion a hair too late to save their asses. May you be a statistic - promptly.
September 27, 2017, 03:54 PM
heatinajeep
quote:
Originally posted by oddball: Interesting stuff.
Moore, a MAGA type of candidate, was backed by Steve Bannon. Strange, the establishment candidate, was backed by Trump. The media rails against Strange just because he was associated with Trump, no other reason needed. Moore wins, and the media is delighted, treating Moore's win as Trump's loss. Trump then states that Moore is a fine man and has no problem working with him, that everything is groovy.
Interesting
Perhaps - however I think most voters recall that-
Strange is a former lobbyist/big government guy.
Recall he was appointed to his position as interim senator by a governor that was under investigation for corruption which all seemed a little to convenient with the circumstances in our state government.
Strange ran a very brutally dishonest campaign in our state.
Strange would not face any media members that would challenge him, he was scared and hid.
It cost him.
You won't find a lot of fans of Moore either, but he was far better candidate vs. Strange.
Strange couldn't go fuck himself hard enough imo....
September 27, 2017, 09:12 PM
Silent
No matter how the press and the democratic leadership try to finesse the results of this election at the end of it all is this simple fact: It's gonna be another win! MAGA
Silent
September 28, 2017, 05:48 AM
joel9507
quote:
Originally posted by Pipe Smoker: I've never understood why President Trump supported Strange. Was it a pragmatic calculation? Figuring that Strange would do better against the Democrat candidate?
Long game.
This way, he won either way. Strange has voted with his agenda (compared to, say McCain, Collins, Murkowski, ...) and by supporting Strange, he was rewarding loyalty. He was also making buddy-buddy with McConnell, who (while being completely ineffectual) is still an important ally for Trump. To put it another way, McConnell would make a bad enemy for Trump.
So he gains for making the effort, and gains even more by having a candidate win that is better aligned with his agenda.
Chess vs. checkers.
September 28, 2017, 06:06 AM
XinTX
quote:
Originally posted by sdy:
Moore ran on an anti-establishment platform that rebuked McConnell and establishment Republicans in Washington.
That, and Strange' ties to a former disgraced governor are why Moore won. Not because of anything Trump did or didn't do. My guess is that Trump may have gone to AL as a favor to Sessions. Maybe. I'm just guessing there. But had the ObamaCAIR repeal gone through, Strange certainly might have had a better chance.
_______________________ “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.” Ayn Rand
“If we relinquish our rights because of fear, what is it exactly, then, we are fighting for?” Sen. Rand Paul
September 28, 2017, 06:20 AM
dwright1951
I saw a figure-if I remember correctly it was that all the money spent on Strange’s campaign ended up at $167 per vote for him.
