in Houston, Texas
Gubernatorial candidate Bill White, who made big money from drilling firm, still won't release tax returns
Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010, 04:02PM CST
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By Jennifer Peebles

It's a frackin' good idea for candidates for high political office to make their income tax returns public -- and a story in this morning's Houston Chronicle shows why.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White, now the Democratic nominee for governor, has made a whole lot of money from a company that is being probed for pollution problems, the Chronicle reports this morning.

The ex-mayor is a director of BJ Services Co., a firm that is involved in drilling for natural gas by "fracking," or squirting water at very high pressure deep into the ground to try to get at the trapped gas.

Fracking works, but the high-pressure water can also have some yucky stuff in it, like diesel fuel and other chemicals. Some folks who live near fracked wells say their well water has gone from clear to blecch, as Mad magazine used to say.

Says a graphic on BJ's Web site just now: "No one fracs more shale than BJ Services." (Is it "fracing" or "fracking"? Until the dictionaries catch up with this new lingo, I'm going with "fracking," as in "politicking" and "picnicking.")

White also received almost $830,000 in stock and another $245,000 in stock options. He will receive an additional $180,000 in stock and a retirement payout of $783,000 if the firm's merger with Baker Hughes is approved by shareholders Friday.

The issue of White's involvement with BJ Services came to light after he refused a Houston Chronicle request for his tax returns during his tenure as mayor. The relationship was disclosed in personal financial disclosure statements. White's campaign provided details on his BJ Services earnings Tuesday.

What does this have to do with income tax returns? White disclosed his connection to company on the annual personal financial disclosure statements he'd been required to fill out as mayor -- though the forms do not ask filers to spell out, in detail, how much they are paid. The White campaign supplied the detailed numbers to the Chronicle at its request.


It's a good thing they released the numbers -- White isn't legally required to make them public -- but they should go one step further. When candidates make their income tax returns public, they give the average citizen better knowledge of the depth of the relationships between the candidate and the companies they work for and the people they're in business with.

And until then, we'll have to live with the Bill White tax returns as imagined by Richard Connelly at the Houston Press' Hair Balls blog. Keeping up with the Kardashians? I always figured the mayor was more of a Real Housewives of New York City kind of guy.
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Jeanie Hennig
Wednesday, 03/17/2010 - 08:08PM

Well the republicans are on record as saying Drill Baby Drill everywhere and often so they ought to love Bill White if he is helping do that to make them Richer, do I miss the point?
John
Friday, 03/19/2010 - 11:47AM

You don't get any of the information you are looking for from a tax return. The cash income is lumped in together with his mayor income and the sources are not listed, the stock ownership doesn't show up, profits from selling the stock are lumped in with all other capital gains from all other stock he has, etc. All these people who clamor for tax returns don't know what they are talking about and I think just want to invade candidate's privacy and look at all sorts of details that have nothing to do with "conflicts." All the things you claim you want to see just aren't there. All you can see is how much they gave to charity, whether they have any income from alimony, whether they had accident/burglary/fire losses, etc.
Jennifer Peebles
Sunday, 03/21/2010 - 11:14AM

John, Jeanie,

Welcome to our site. We appreciate you reading and commenting.

Take care,

Jennifer P

jennifer@texaswatchdog.org
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