Jim Pendergraph’s $200,000 Taxpayer Take
Post Submitted by Nan Bauroth
Watching the GOP primary battle for Charlotte’s 9th District Congressional seat, it’s hard not to wonder what conservatives and Tea Partiers are thinking. Their driving concern is supersized federal debt, exacerbated by bloated salaries and pensions of government employees that threaten to bankrupt taxpayers. Yet, many of these voters view Jim Pendergraph as the answer.
If ever there were an Exhibit A in the case against big government, it’s the former Mecklenburg County Sheriff, who collects a $115,000 plus annual pension – near 80 percent of his $151,000 salary in that post. To add insult to taxpayer injury, Pendergraph then gets to write off that entire $115,000 on his state taxes, in contrast to the measly $4,000 maximum deduction that private sector retirees get (check out this site to know about how much a employee from public sector gets). Pendergraph’s entitlement is courtesy of the Bailey Settlement, which in 1989 exempted certain local, state and federal employee pension income from North Carolina taxation. This means private sector taxpayers here not only bear the cost of disparate salaries, benefits and pensions of government employees, but also the untold dollars in state income taxes that would otherwise be paid by those workers.
You’d think all these goodies would be enough for Pendergraph. But no. As a County Commissioner, he is now entitled to pocket another $33,000 plus in compensation from Mecklenburg County taxpayers.
Even that triple taxpayer dip, however, still isn’t enough for Pendergraph. In 2010 and 2011 his consulting business received $25,000 in annual fees from Keith & Keith Corrections (KKC) – which he openly admits on his tax returns and website. What he conveniently omits to explain is that KKC is an arm of The Keith Corporation, a Charlotte real estate management company that Pendergraph retained in 1996 while Sheriff to handle maintenance for Mecklenburg County Jails. That annual contract, which KKC Director Mike Cox says doesn’t require competitive bidding because it is “just like a service contract,” is worth over $6 million – one of the three biggest contracts doled out by the Sheriff’s Department – and all funded by Mecklenburg County taxpayers.
Apparently Pendergraph sees no conflict of interest as a County Commissioner in voting on the budget for the Sheriff’s office to pay KKC, and worse yet, any ethical breach in taking $50,000 of even more Mecklenburg County taxpayer money over the past two years from that same firm. Little wonder top brass at The Keith Corporation donated heavily to Pendergraph’s 2010 run for County Commissioner, and are now lining his congressional campaign coffers at $2,500 a pop. Thanks to Pendergraph greasing the skids in 1996, KKC now maintains jails in neighboring states, and no doubt hopes for access to the even greater influence Pendergraph could wield in Congress.
When Pendergraph released his tax returns, he insisted he had nothing to hide. Remarkable chutzpah, considering his total 2010 income was $182,869 – $118,971 from his government pension, $51,695 in wages from Mecklenburg County, plus $12,203 profit creamed off his KKC consulting fees. In 2011, his income reached a staggering $201,638 – $115,694 in pension income, $75,317 in wages from Mecklenburg County, and $10,627 profit from KKC fees. When Congressman Sue Myrick helped him land his post with ICE in 2007, he raked in a six figure federal salary for a time, and if elected to Congress, he’ll be back in the big federal money with a $174,000 salary on top of his current pension, bringing his total taxpayer take to over $300,000. All of which goes to show why, for government lifers like Pendergraph, taxpayer money is the gift that keeps on giving.
And talk about a one-way street when it comes to giving. In a recent ad Pendergraph accused his opponent, former State Senator Robert Pittenger, of taking a state pension due him for his service in Raleigh and donating that amount to charity strictly for the tax deduction. Pendergraph knew full well that by law Pittenger must take that pension, and compounded his advertising half-truth by neglecting to reveal his huge $115,000 state tax deduction, not to mention that in 2011 he and wife Loretta only managed to scrape up a paltry $720 for charity – not even one percent of their $200,000 taxpayer-funded income. In 2010, the couple also gave barely one percent – pretty rich hypocrisy for a congressional candidate whose ads boast about his Sunday school virtues. Pendergraph must have missed the lesson about it being better to give than to receive.
In another recent ad, Pendergraph assures voters he is just one of them, an ordinary hard-working man who is entitled to his pension. But does the average Mecklenburg County taxpayer paying that $115,000 pension receive that same retirement income, let alone live in a 6,000 square foot home on nine acres of land up on the Palisades worth $684,800? When are conservatives and Tea partiers going to realize that Jim Pendergraph is the problem, not the solution. He had no loss of conscience about recently raising taxes here in Mecklenburg right after he signed the no-tax pledge, prompting the national founder of the tax reform movement, Grover Norquist, to issue a fatwa to voters that ran in the Wall Street Journal and other national media warning conservatives and Tea partiers that this man’s record cannot be trusted.
Given all of the above, it’s hard not to wonder what Sue Myrick is thinking. Not only did she reveal her decision to retire to Pendergraph first, but jumped to endorse the lifelong Democrat who only turned Republican after she catapulted him into a Bush administration appointment, thus betraying a slew of GOP compatriots with gold-plated conservative credentials who had supported her politically and financially for many years. She’s also given him thousands from her campaign funds, and been calling in her “You owe me’s” to influential Charlotteans and PACs to pony up for Pendergraph. What’s in it for her? Perhaps Myrick should rethink if she wants to be remembered in American history as part of the solution, or the problem. It’s her turn to rescind her endorsement of Pendergraph, lest it prove a sad epitaph on an otherwise stellar political career.
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