Post by pavel on Mar 1, 2016 2:45:51 GMT -6
Republican Texas Supreme Court candidate Rick Green is struggling to pay back a half-million-dollar loan from a South Central Texas town for a hotel renovation project. Green has also received a $25,000 grant to produce a promotional video for the city using clips from his reality TV show.
Green, who has billed himself a fiscal and social conservative on the campaign trail, borrowed $455,670 from the city of Gonzales in 2014 to renovate the Alcalde Hotel and Grill. But financial records submitted to the city and public meeting minutes show that Green has since been unable to make the monthly payments and has violated the terms of the agreement. In January, the city granted his request to restructure the loan and pay the interest alone for six months.
“If he defaults [on the loan]… the town would suddenly be in the hotel business,” said Erik McCowan, a Gonzales Inquirer reporter who has been covering Green’s business activities in the city. “It would make things harder for a legitimate business to obtain the same type of loan in the future.”
Green’s father, Richard Green Sr., who is part owner in the hotel, said they were working on a program to bring tourists interested in the hotel’s history and improve occupancy rates.
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Green, who more than a decade ago was state representative for Hays, Caldwell and Blanco counties, has earned a reputation for unethical practices. In 2001, he went before a parole board to represent a convicted Ponzi-scheme criminal who had lent Green’s company $400,000, and helped secure the man a reduced sentence. Green has also assaulted a legislator and lobbied for diet pills.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/rick-green-gonzales-loan/
Green, who has billed himself a fiscal and social conservative on the campaign trail, borrowed $455,670 from the city of Gonzales in 2014 to renovate the Alcalde Hotel and Grill. But financial records submitted to the city and public meeting minutes show that Green has since been unable to make the monthly payments and has violated the terms of the agreement. In January, the city granted his request to restructure the loan and pay the interest alone for six months.
“If he defaults [on the loan]… the town would suddenly be in the hotel business,” said Erik McCowan, a Gonzales Inquirer reporter who has been covering Green’s business activities in the city. “It would make things harder for a legitimate business to obtain the same type of loan in the future.”
Green’s father, Richard Green Sr., who is part owner in the hotel, said they were working on a program to bring tourists interested in the hotel’s history and improve occupancy rates.
-snip-
Green, who more than a decade ago was state representative for Hays, Caldwell and Blanco counties, has earned a reputation for unethical practices. In 2001, he went before a parole board to represent a convicted Ponzi-scheme criminal who had lent Green’s company $400,000, and helped secure the man a reduced sentence. Green has also assaulted a legislator and lobbied for diet pills.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/rick-green-gonzales-loan/