Stealing campaign cash: Larry Taylor

State Representative Larry Taylor might be lucky. The State has been controlled by the republican party for over a decade and they have little interest in ethics reform or ethics violations. According to a complaint filed with the Travis County District Attorney, Taylor has been stealing from the tax payers by filing for travel reimbursement from the Comptroller's Office. But this travel was paid for by his campaign account, The Coalition To Elect Larry Taylor. 

This is called "double dipping" and if anyone besides an elected official in Texas did it, it would be considered a felony. Lucky for Taylor his republican buddies will protect him and he has a great excuse. According to the San Antonio Express Taylor claims to have paid his campaign back, even showing copies of checks for Dec of 2008. 

But the Express says his account is still $30,000 light. Taylor also has an excuse for this claiming that campaign reports are never accurate and that reimbursements to the campaign are optional, which is correct, but pretty damn stupid for any elected official to do. Funny, his account has recorded a number of these "optional" credits to the account in the past.

A tally of all Taylor's political contributions and expenses since arriving in the Legislature in 2003 shows a cash-on-hand balance that is roughly $30,000 less than it would be had all the travel reimbursements been repaid, Palmer said.

This complaint was filed by Dave Palmer of California. He couldn't file with the Ethics Commission because the republican House and Senate passed a bill forbidding complaints from outside of Texas. Instead he filed with the District Attorney's office. This is a better move since the TEC will never, and has never, taken action against anyone stealing money from taxpayers or their donors.

Losing Taylor would be a huge loss for the people he represents, the Insurance Industry. Palmer's complete complaint to the District Attorney can be found here.

November 15, 2010

Hon. Rosemary Lehmberg

Travis County District Attorney

Re: State Rep. Larry Taylor Double-Billing for $31,952.27

Dear Mr. Ms. Lehmberg:

Please consider this an official complaint that I’m filing against state Rep. Larry Taylor. My review of Rep. Taylor’s campaign expenses along with records of payments he received from the Texas State Comptroller indicates that he received identical payments for the same travel-related expenses on multiple occasions-including 90 air fares.