Perry was against stimulus-now, not so much

[babylonsister]

Perry making use of stimulus boost
By R.G. RATCLIFFE Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Sept. 7, 2009, 11:03PM


AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry rallied opposition to federal stimulus spending, but he now is the manager of one of the biggest pots of federal gold in Texas: crime grants to local law enforcement agencies.

And those grants have become an integral part of Perry's political machine.

Perry in the past has decided what law enforcement agencies receive about $23 million a year in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance grants. Now, because of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Perry will have an additional $90 million to hand out.

While Perry's office is the conduit for the federal money, the governor chooses which agencies receive the money and how it is spent. The political payoff has been great.

About $6 million in Byrne grants helped Perry win the endorsement of border sheriffs in 2006. Perry last year held a news conference to promote $557,000 in grant money he was giving to the San Antonio Police Department to target transnational gangs.

Every time Perry doles out the federal Byrne grants, he sounds like the money is his.

more...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6607280.html

[hobbit709]

1. He Grammstands well.

[sonias]

2. Perry has made things a lot worse with these grants

Perry is using these Byrne grants specifically to "reward" police enforcement agencies and create controversial drug squads and they in turn have turned out to be pretty corrupt in some cases. Tulia is the prime example of these rogue units gone bad. It's just a way for them to spend money and to justify them continuing to get money they sometimes fake evidence.

Tulia controversy
(snip)

The Byrne grants got a bad name in the early part of this decade in Texas when they were used to fund regional drug task forces, one of which resulted in the conviction of 39 innocent people in Tulia based on the false testimony of an undercover narcotics agent.

Perry, who was not involved in funding the Tulia task force, pulled the plug on regional task forces and shifted the emphasis in handing out Byrne money to border and homeland security.

(snip)
Scott Henson, former director of the ACLU Police Accountability Project, said some of the Byrne money in Texas is used for prison diversion programs and drug courts in urban counties. But Henson, who blogs about criminal justice, said some of the money Perry gave to the border sheriffs did nothing to deter crime.

"Some of the people he gave the money to turned out to be on the drug lords' payroll," Henson said, referring to former Starr County Sheriff Rey Guerra, who recently was sentenced to 64 months in prison for leaking sensitive law enforcement information to Mexican drug traffickers.

Perry speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He hates Government money, but then says "let me give some of it to my friends who will then endorse me for Governor".

Sonia