Ed Gray, former mayor of Gulf Breeze, responded Tuesday to an attack mailer making the rounds in Florida House District 2, the seat recently vacated by the death of Rep. Clay Ford, another Gulf Breeze Republican.
The mailer, published by an electioneering communications organization (ECO) called the Committee for a Better Florida, characterizes Gray and fellow GOP primary candidate Jack Nobles as career politicians and deal makers, and says they "raised our taxes and our fees" and "spent our tax dollars on big boondoggles.
Gray,who is the race's front-runner, according to a recent poll, is the executive director of two local government agencies which oversee millions of dollars in various bond projects.
Gray helped form Gulf Breeze Financial Services in 1985, when he was the city's mayor, and in 2002 took up the position of executive director, a post created especially for him and that, as of 2002, earned him a salary of $60,000. Gray is also executive director of Capital Trust Agency, a joint bond venture between the cities of Gulf Breeze and Century.
Both agencies loan bond revenues to local governments and private nonprofit entities.
We have done a lot of deals over the years, I'm proud to say; we've helped a lot of communities build improvements, Gray tells Sunshine State News. When you are in this kind of activity financial transactions some people disagree with the projects you fund; regulatory authorities every now and then examine us, and each time we've had an examination there's been no adverse determination.
Loaning Tax-Free Bond Money to Help Indians Build Casinos?
The first criticism leveled by the flier against Gray calls attention to $345 million of tax-free loans by Capital Trust to the Seminole Indians in Tampa and Hollywood to help [them] build casinos in Florida. The IRS investigated in 2005, issuing an initial ruling that the bonds violated federal law, which, the IRS alleged, allows tribes to use tax-free bonds only for essential government services, not hotels or casinos.
No final ruling was issued in the case; the Tribe decided to settle the case by buying back the bonds.
Gray at the time told the Associated Press that [i]n Florida, it's a long-established governmental purpose to issue bonds for economic development activity, including resorts, because of tourism being key to our state. And he continues to insist that the loans to the hotels did not amount to government financing of casinos.
We helped them finance the construction of their hotel and convention facilities, which obviously house some gaming activities that's no secret but we did not finance any of the gaming operations, he tells SSN. We financed the facilities, which are used for that purpose [i.e.,casinos], and are a good tourist draw for those communities.
Raising Floridians' Utility Rates?
The flier goes on to accuse Gray of help[ing] to "raise utility fees for over 500,000 Floridians, a reference to an attempt in 2002 by Gulf Breeze and nearby Milton to purchase Florida's largest private water utility, Florida Water Services, which served 16 counties, mostly in the central and southwest portions of the state. Had the deal gone through, customers' water rates would have gone up after three years, and the price of new connections would have immediately increased by 25 percent.
The pending deal drew severe criticism from residents of those counties, who resented both the upcoming fee and rate increases and the operation of their utilities by city governments located hundreds of miles away from their communities. At the time, Gray was executive director of the Florida Water Services Authority which would have operated the newly acquired utility company and was criticized for not providing published notice of the deal to residents of the affected counties; he published meeting notices in a Pensacola newspaper instead.
Gray says the flier's allegation that he helped raise utility costs for Floridians is inaccurate, because the deal was never concluded.
Taking Obama Stimulus Dollars to Fund Boondoggles?
Finally, the mailer faults Gray for securing some $13.4 million in 2009 federal stimulus funds, through Capital Trust, to build a maritime museum in Pensacola's Community Maritime Park. The museum was never built.
Gray tells SSN it is misleading to characterize his obtaining of those funds as participating in the controversial federal stimulus programs. Capital Trust is designated a community development entity (CDE) by the U.S. Treasury under a bipartisan program that has existed since Republican George W. Bush's presidency. CDEs are eligible to apply for and receive New Market Tax Credits every fiscal year to help spur economic development, and it so happened that in 2009 the appropriation was injected with federal stimulus dollars.
Both parties recognize [New Market Tax Credits] as a program they want to sustain, Gray explains. It's very beneficial to low-income communities to marry private and public money, to make projects in these communities. It's truly bipartisan, because it's survived all these years.
The flier refers to the funds going to subsidize the Maritime Park boondoggle, though it isn't clear whether that refers to the never-built museum or to the park itself. The area of the park which the museum was supposed to occupy is still undeveloped.
Gray objected to the designation of the park itself as a boondoggle, insisting that the Maritime Park, despite being incomplete, has revitalized downtown Pensacola by becoming a place for the total community to visit.
Gray declined to speculate as to whether any of his primary opponents are secretly behind the mailings, but he insists he's a true limited-government conservative, and will legislate as one should he win the May 14 primary and June 11 general elections.
My philosophy is about less government intrusion into our everyday lives, he explains. Government can encourage more economic activity in this state by welcoming businesses that want to come here and be part of the community and provide jobs, but there are limits to that. I've been telling people I may actually go to Tallahassee, and you'll know more about me trying to repeal laws than make laws.
Gray's primary opponents include Northwest Florida Tea Party president Mike Hill, former Pensacola city councilman Jack Nobles, and political strategist Scott Miller.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
