Posted on 10/06/2015 12:49:00 PM PDT by jimbo123
After leaving the Florida governorship, Jeb Bush often commanded tens of thousands of dollars for speaking engagements. Some of his bigger checks were signed by major corporations, private universities with considerable endowments, overseas business conferences -- and a church in Houston frequented for more than 50 years by his parents, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush.
The former Florida governor charged one of his highest fees to St. Martin's Episcopal Church last year for a Sept. 30 event, according to a financial disclosure form with the Federal Election Commission. The fee of $50,000 was his fifth-highest rate in 2014 of 43 events stateside.
Those who received a better deal than Bush's family church included FedEx, which made more than $9 billion during the 2014 fiscal year and paid Bush $28,000 for his January speech, Vanderbilt University, which has a $4 billion endowment and wrote him a check for $45,000 in October, and electrical contractor Altec Industries, which paid Bush $25,000 -- half of the St. Martin's invoice.
Bush's usual rate seems to be $42,500, which the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California, Hanover Insurance Group and professional service giant KPMG all paid, among about a dozen others.
The Bush family has been affiliated with St. Martin's Episcopal since Jeb's parents moved to Houston in 1959
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
I wouldn’t choose to live in a big city but Boston is nice. Although I don’t like their winters. I did live in Houston three years as a child and I’ve been back a couple of times for conventions. I live part of the time in a nice suburb and part of the time at our little hobby farm. I rarely go into town (KCMO). I would never want to live there.
Well, this was an Episcopal church so it’s not as if they needed the money for any religious purpose whatsoever.
I guess, like any large city, it depends where you live or work. I have family and friends who all live in lovely areas of Houston.
Nice fundraiser....I mean, speech.
Some Episcopal parishes, particularly those in tony neighborhoods such as where the Bush family would live, have endowments matching some good sized universities. Did the reporter find out what the assets of this particular parish are? And what Jeb Bush might have done besides just give a talk? Was there an individual or group that funded this vs. church coffers?
It is the cheapest city to live in of the twenty largest cities in the nation.
I’ve lived in urban New England and would not consider acceptable living.
Around Houston, you can afford enough land to live with cows and horses and still drive in for work.
I know that there are lovely areas and I’m sure that the Bush home is in one of them. But its flat and the climate is horrible. I lived there in the 50s with no air conditioning and one January it rained every day so maybe that’s why I can’t imagine living there. I have walked and driven around Tucson and Phoenix. They are nice and I like the desert but don’t want to live there. I’m not a fan of Florida either. I guess I’m just hard to please. I do love the climate where I live. Four distinct seasons.
I start sweating every time I think about going back there. My sister lived there for years. Heat, humidity, traffic...and the Oilers (back then.) Who couldn’t love that. //sarc
I would want to know who provided the $50k to the church to give to Jeb.
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Don’t know the finances but this Episcopal Ch is the largest in North America
at almost 9,000 members. Money flows I’d guess in and out.
OK, you had me at “cows and horses.”
Money laundering. Big donor gets a tax deduction for “supporting” the church, Jeb gets money for his campaign. Easy.
He couldn’t charge it if they weren’t foolish enough to pay it
Yep, and to pay the customs fines for trying to sneak stuff into the USA (repeatedly, IIRC).
Starting my drive in past open fields of cows, horses and oil wells helps keep my sanity for the rest of the commute into work.
The Bush family does stuff like this all the time. They have for generations.
http://stmartinsepiscopal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2014-Annual-Report-compressed.pdf
Houston is a very good town for work. Only recently has the oil and gas industry been stalling, but Houston has held up better than other major cities during Obama’s destruction. Most people don’t live within the city limits here. It’s not pretty like a tourist town, but the suburbs are nice and the cost of living is much lower than up north. As the other poster said, great hospitals/doctors - truly world class. And good local conservative talk radio hosts.
Obviously, that was a ploy to exceed the individual contribution limit and put mommy and daddy’s ca$h in yebbie’s pocket. Oh, and at the same time, make a normally non-deductible expense a tax deduction for mommy and daddy.
If you look at the church contributions for the month prior you’ll find they were $50K larger than normal. I’ll let you figure out who the generous givers were. :-)
Perfectly legal, too. It *can’t* be researched because it’s a church, but if it *were* researched it would pass muster. As long as Yebbie pays his income tax on it.
Disgraceful.
But then so were the Bushes. We voted for them because the other option wasn’t ‘poison lite’.
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