Perry fundraising raises questions on relief funds

Enlarge This Image Charles Krupa/ASSOCIATED PRESS Among Gov. Rick Perry's political donors is HNTB, a firm charged with managing $1 billion in federal disaster funds that has had problems with performance.

Published: 6:10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, 2011

A national audience got a look last week at Gov. Rick Perry's fundraising prowess. Perry reported raising $17 million in the month and a half since he announced his presidential bid. The showing restored some momentum Perry lost in two debates and a lackluster showing in the Florida straw poll late last month.

But that knack for fundraising has raised both questions and eyebrows when big Perry contributors obtain state contracts. The American-Statesman's Brenda Bell reported last week that a contract to manage more than $1 billion in federal disaster funds granted to HNTB, a firm based in Kansas City, Mo., is not performing. Bell reported that HNTB has been paid $45 million so far to process infrastructure grants. The amount the firm has collected comes close to depleting the money budgeted for administration and planning. Only 20 percent of the money released to help repair damage inflicted by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike in 2008 has been distributed.

The administrative spending is sounding alarms with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Texas General Land Office has canceled the HNTB contract.

The firm and its executives have been generous contributors to both Perry and the Republican Governors Association, a group Perry has chaired twice. The association, in return, has contributed $4 million to past Perry campaigns. HNTB was also the principal consultant on the Trans Texas Corridor, an ambitious transportation project Perry championed. The project flopped in face of overwhelming public opposition, but not before HNTB collected $109 million in engineering consultant services.

Even those inclined to give the governor every benefit of the doubt on those contracts should want to know why the hurricane recovery funds didn't reach their intended recipients more quickly.

The General Land Office, led by Commissioner Jerry Patterson, has taken over oversight of the relief effort and has promised greater accountability.

Bell quoted federal officials as saying that using private contractors to manage relief funds is unusual, but Perry has long been a fan of public-private endeavors. Unfortunately for taxpayers, those efforts haven't always produced good results. More than $800,000 went into an effort to merge the data centers of 28 state agencies into two streamlined and secure facilities. The consolidation was supposed to be completed by December 2009 but was still only 12 percent complete when the contract was re-bid in 2010.

Perry is scheduled to face his Republican rivals again Tuesday in a New Hampshire debate to be broadcast by Bloomberg Televison and co-sponsored by The Washington Post. It represents not only an opportunity for Perry to regain momentum, but for his opponents to question the governor on his record of managing public funds.

Bell's article was zipping through cyberspace last week and led to some speculation as to whether the Republicans would start asking questions about Perry and his contributors. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but it's a question that will loom large in the general election campaign should Perry win the GOP nomination.

Regardless of the politics, the fact remains that people who needed help aren't getting it, and they have a right to know why.