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In a CNN/ORC poll conducted this month, 57 percent of Americans said Mrs. Clinton was not honest and trustworthy, up from 49 percent in March.
Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as New York’s senator only adds to the storyline of political favors for wealthy contributors.
In 2004, Robert J. Congel, an upstate New York builder, contributed $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation — one month after Mrs. Clinton, as senator, helped enact legislation that allowed Mr. Congel’s firm to use tax-free bonds to build a mega-shopping center dubbed Destiny USA in Syracuse.
About year later, Mrs. Clinton put an additional earmark in a highway bill for $5 million for Mr. Congel’s development project, which passed nine months after Mr. Congel donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Overall, Destiny USA, now the sixth-largest shopping mall in the U.S., received 15 government tax subsidies valued at more than $703.6 million, making the Syracuse property one of the biggest recipients of economic development dollars in the nation, according to a report released by Good Jobs First, a research center in Washington. Not all the money was paid out during Mrs. Clinton’s term as senator.
Mr. Congel declined to be interviewed for this article, as did a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. But back in 2009, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman Philippe Reines told The New York Times that there was no connection between Mr. Congel’s donation and her legislative work on his project.
Mrs. Clinton supported expansion of the mall “purely as part of her unwavering commitment to improving upstate New York’s struggling economy, and nothing more,” Mr. Reines told the New York paper. He added that Mrs. Clinton didn’t solicit the money from Mr. Congel or discuss it with him or anyone on his behalf and was unaware of its timing and size until some years later.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3ciEsAGEz
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as New York’s senator only adds to the storyline of political favors for wealthy contributors.
In 2004, Robert J. Congel, an upstate New York builder, contributed $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation — one month after Mrs. Clinton, as senator, helped enact legislation that allowed Mr. Congel’s firm to use tax-free bonds to build a mega-shopping center dubbed Destiny USA in Syracuse.
About year later, Mrs. Clinton put an additional earmark in a highway bill for $5 million for Mr. Congel’s development project, which passed nine months after Mr. Congel donated to the Clinton Foundation.
Overall, Destiny USA, now the sixth-largest shopping mall in the U.S., received 15 government tax subsidies valued at more than $703.6 million, making the Syracuse property one of the biggest recipients of economic development dollars in the nation, according to a report released by Good Jobs First, a research center in Washington. Not all the money was paid out during Mrs. Clinton’s term as senator.
Mr. Congel declined to be interviewed for this article, as did a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. But back in 2009, Mrs. Clinton’s spokesman Philippe Reines told The New York Times that there was no connection between Mr. Congel’s donation and her legislative work on his project.
Mrs. Clinton supported expansion of the mall “purely as part of her unwavering commitment to improving upstate New York’s struggling economy, and nothing more,” Mr. Reines told the New York paper. He added that Mrs. Clinton didn’t solicit the money from Mr. Congel or discuss it with him or anyone on his behalf and was unaware of its timing and size until some years later.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3ciEsAGEz
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
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