Abuse of state vouchers reaches criminal stage (FL)

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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/opinion_0442327b064cf0c80079.html

Palm Beach Post Editorial
Sunday, February 8, 2004

If Gov. Bush, Education Commissioner Jim Horne and voucher overlord John Kirtley had their way, James K. Isenhour never would have been arrested for stealing voucher money.

They intentionally created programs with no meaningful oversight. The "Education" Department -- which under Mr. Horne has earned the quotation marks -- let Isenhour, a bankrupt Ocala businessman, collect and keep $268,125 in voucher donations. Every penny was required to go to students. None of it did. Only after The Post pointed out Isenhour's business failings and questioned his use of vouchers did Mr. Horne stop Isenhour's Silver Archer Foundation from collecting money.

Isenhour is charged with looting the corporate-tax voucher program, which gives companies a dollar-for-dollar tax break for donations. The Legislature passed it in 2001 after Mr. Kirtley made a $100,000 donation to the Republican Party of Florida. Mr. Kirtley, Gov. Bush and Mr. Horne opposed financial oversight of the scholarship organizations -- one of which Mr. Kirtley runs -- until newspaper articles detailed several scandals, including Isenhour's shenanigans and the receipt of $300,000 in corporate vouchers by a Tampa Islamic school founded by an accused terrorist.

Mr. Horne tried to take credit for the Isenhour/Silver Archer investigation. "DOE acted swiftly in referring this matter to the appropriate authorities," spokeswoman Frances Marine said after Isenhour's arrest. In fact, "the authorities" -- Florida Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher -- already had started an investigation based on media revelations.

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1. Criminal from way back

Isenhour, who graduated from high school in North Carolina and is a journeyman electrician by trade, moved to Florida in the early 1970s.

He has as many as 21 inactive Florida corporations attached to his name. They include investment firms, realty management groups, education consultants, an aerospace technologies company, an entertainment firm and something called "An Angel's Touch Inc." According to court records, even oil fields were part of Isenhour's entrepreneurial empire.

Isenhour got involved with the Cambridge Academy in the late 1970s. Soon, his then-wife, Tanzee Isenhour, became the chief executive officer. The school, located in a strip mall south of downtown Ocala, has been listed as inactive four times on the state's Division of Corporations Web site.

It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2003, with Isenhour listed as its chief financial officer. But the school became an active Colorado corporation again the same month under Taylar Butler, who has had many past business dealings with Isenhour on now inactive companies, including The Drop Zone Inc. and Paramed 2000 Inc.

Colorado, according to that state's corporate records Web site, is also where Silver Archer Foundation was registered as a for-profit corporation - in apparent contradiction of the group's IRS nonprofit status. That Colorado registration, however, also lapsed for failure to file an annual report.
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