More News on Gov. Perry

[Blastoderm55]

AUSTIN — Just days after insisting his friendship with a former U.S. senator had nothing to do with his proposal to sell off the Texas Lottery, Gov. Rick Perry faced renewed conflict-of-interest questions Tuesday, this time regarding his son.

Perry's office confirmed that his son, Griffin Perry, 23, had secured a job at UBS, the investment-banking company the governor has consulted on the lottery proposal.

The UBS vice chairman is former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, whose political action committee once gave Perry $610,000.

A spokesman for Perry disputed any suggestion that the employment of Griffin Perry had any influence on the governor's discussions with UBS.

"The two are in no way connected," spokesman Robert Black said. "Trying to connect them is a myth."

As for Gramm, Black said Perry had never even spoken to him about the lottery proposal.

Griffin Perry, a graduate of Vanderbilt University who studied economics, had been "subject to the same application process as anyone else" when he was hired, UBS spokeswoman Karina Byrne said.

She said he had been offered a job in mid- to late January to work in the Dallas office in the firm's wealth-management division, a unit not involved in the discussions surrounding the proposed lottery sale, Byrne added. He starts Thursday.

UBS, one of two companies the governor's office has consulted, would stand to take in millions of dollars in fees if it eventually brokers a deal to sell the state lottery to a private company, which Gov. Perry has estimated could bring in between $14 billion and $20 billion.

Robert Rodriguez, president of Southwestern Capital Markets, an investment firm in San Antonio, estimated that a company could easily earn $100 million for brokering the sale of the country's third-largest lottery.

"That's a lot of money," Rodriguez said.

Perry pushed the lottery sale last week in his State of the State address. His aides said the sale would generate roughly $300 million more from investments each year than the state now collects in ticket sales.

Under the proposal, money from the sale would be invested and the proceeds would fund three trusts: one for public education, a second for cancer research and a third for health care for as many as 600,000 low-income, uninsured Texans.

Perry's proposal stunned many lawmakers still fuming over his executive order four days earlier requiring 11- and 12-year old girls be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer.

That order quickly prompted calls from reporters seeking to know if Perry had been influenced by his former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, who is a registered lobbyist for Merck, the drug company that makes the vaccine. Perry's office said he wasn't.

The governor's handlers have been unable to silence the skeptics.

"It could be a coincidence, but it doesn't look good," said Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based group that tracks money in Texas politics.

The governor's connection to people working at UBS "raises the question: Is this good public policy or is this just a business deal?" he said of the lottery proposal.

Perry's office had to concede one more connection Tuesday. Phil Wilson, Perry's deputy chief of staff, was once employed by Gramm when he was a senator.

[Adidas410s]

1) vaccination for pre-teen girls...non-issue
2) son getting a job @ UBS when he's more than qualified...non-issue
3) selling of the lottery to a private company...MAYBE an issue but nothing to waste time discussing IMO

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
1) vaccination for pre-teen girls...non-issue

seems like an issue to me. LOTS of upset people!

[AP Panther Fan]

Originally posted by Adidas410s 3) selling of the lottery to a private company...MAYBE an issue but nothing to waste time discussing IMO

I think this one is newsworthy, but I definitely need to do more reading before I know where I stand on it. All politics aside, at face value, it kind of infuriates me...if you are going to sell it and set up three trust funds, why not just own it, collect the profits and fund those three causes? Maybe because it wouldn't be permanent and could be "undone" in the future?

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
seems like an issue to me. LOTS of upset people!

People upset over a vaccine??? Papaloma (sp) virus is becoming increasingly more commong. Requiring a vaccine that could prevent it should be a no-brainer.

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by AP Panther Fan
I think this one is newsworthy, but I definitely need to do more reading before I know where I stand on it. All politics aside, at face value, it kind of infuriates me...if you are going to sell it and set up three trust funds, why not just own it, collect the profits and fund those three causes? Maybe because it wouldn't be permanent and could be "undone" in the future?

My thought it that the state stands to make more money for these programs through 1) the sale of the lottery and 2) the interest that will be made in these funds than they do off of ticket sales alone. That would be the logical reasoning for wanting to pursue this avenue...

[Blastoderm55]

An accounting professor at UT has stated that the investment return wouldn't be anywhere near Perry's projections. Let me find the article stating such.

[kaorder1999]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
People upset over a vaccine??? Papaloma (sp) virus is becoming increasingly more commong. Requiring a vaccine that could prevent it should be a no-brainer.

people have been going nuts over this one. Maybe ive just been watching at the right time or something but it seems like to me there are a lot of unhappy people with that one!

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Blastoderm55
An accounting professor at UT has stated that the investment return wouldn't be anywhere near Perry's projections. Let me find the article stating such.

Any projections regarding investment return is purely speculative. Statistics can be generated to tell whatever story you want when everything is speculation.

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by kaorder1999
people have been going nuts over this one. Maybe ive just been watching at the right time or something but it seems like to me there are a lot of unhappy people with that one!

I guess I've missed the outcry. What have they been getting upset about?

[Blastoderm55]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
I guess I've missed the outcry. What have they been getting upset about?

The outcry has been coming from Perry's base who claim that the vaccine will lead to more underage sex.

[Adidas410s]

Originally posted by Blastoderm55
The outcry has been coming from Perry's base who claim that the vaccine will lead to more underage sex.

hmm...that's an odd thought. Also...I would like to ask them when there became a "legal age" for sex!

[AP Panther Fan]

Originally posted by Blastoderm55
The outcry has been coming from Perry's base who claim that the vaccine will lead to more underage sex.

I don't necessarily agree with that line of thought, having two daughters myself. My biggest concern would be longterm side effects of the vaccine.

[Blastoderm55]

Originally posted by Adidas410s
hmm...that's an odd thought. Also...I would like to ask them when there became a "legal age" for sex!

Perhaps they took The Meaning of Life seriously. Frankly, the thought of AIDS or having a child seems like more than enough reason to practice abstinence or at least safe sex.

[Blastoderm55]

Originally posted by AP Panther Fan
I don't necessarily agree with that line of thought, having two daughters myself. My biggest concern would be longterm side effects of the vaccine.

Which haven't been given time to be tested given the vaccine's relatively new. That's definitely something to be measured before we go injecting an entire generation of young women.