| ► 08/23/10 – letter to Travis County DA re: misconduct of Brownsivlle legislators |
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08/23/10 – letter to Travis County DA Lehmberg re: misconduct of Brownsville legislators
Dave Palmer
The Watchdawg
URL: www.noethics.net
August 23, 2010
Hon. Rosemary Lehmberg
Travis County District Attorney
P.O. Box 1748
Austin, Texas 78767
Re: State legislator’s misappropriating State per diem payments
Dear Mr. Ms. Lehmberg:
The following is a follow-up to my prior letter of Aug. 14 that dealt with legislators from the Houston/San Antonio areas regarding what certainly appears to be misappropriation of state paid per diem payments.
The legislators alluded to herein are:
Eddie Lucio – 27th Senate – Brownsville
Juan Hinojosa – 20th Senate – McAllen
Eddie Lucio III – 38th Rep. – Brownsville
I’ve spent a great deal of time investigating the conduct by which Texas legislators dispense with per diem payments received from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. This investigation included my review of over 20,000 spreadsheet entries along with 100,000 to 150,000 campaign expense entries. That investigation has led to the inescapable conclusion that a vast majority of past/present legislators have pocketed per diem payments for lodging costs they provably never incurred. As you know, the IRS and Texas considers per diem to include lodging/meal costs.
Below you’ll find 3 text boxes setting forth the facts I uncovered regarding the Lucios’ and Mr. Hinojosa. The same information can be found by going to my website at www.noethics.net and going to the category titled “Texas Reporter” or by going to the URL listed under the article below.
Brownsville legislators misappropriating state funds – tax avoidance
The data contained in the 3 text boxes was gleaned via my review of records obtained from the State Controller and/or campaign expenditures provided online by the Texas Ethics Commission. I did include amounts spent by campaigns for meals by these folks due to the enormity of said claims (Sen. Lucio averaging about 250 or so meals a year)
It would be difficult to imagine that this conduct does not constitute de facto fraud. I suspect you agree that one cannot accept payments for costs one never incurred, right? The facts herein are but the opening salvo of the unconscionable misconduct of state legislators in pocketing state reimbursements for expenses they never incurred. The documented evidence of similar fraud I’ve uncovered appears to be unprecedented.
Please understand Ms. Lehmberg that I am not implying that Texas politicians stand alone in engaging in this type of egregious avarice. Sadly, I’ve discovered that it is a nationwide epidemic that afflicts so-called public servants of every political persuasion.
Thanks for your time and attention and I look forward to your prompt reply. If there’s anything I can do to assist you in investigating this conduct; please do not hesitate to call upon me. Put simply, I stand at the ready to so act!
Respectfully yours,
Dave Palmer
The Watchdawg
Folsom, California
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