For weeks, the political sun beamed on former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, nominated for agriculture secretary, with the only complaint being the slow pace toward a confirmation hearing. Now, the Environmental Working Group faults Perdue for ethical lapses “that raise troubling questions about his fitness to run the department.”
“Governor Perdue’s ethics and morals are unquestionable,” responded a transition official to the allegations, which also were reported by The New York Times. “The criticism centers on the fact that … he continued to own or help run his family business ventures — four farming-related companies — while serving as governor,” said the Times.
The most salient events were Perdue’s behind-the-scenes role in the purchase of 101 acres of land near a wildlife preserve just before it was sold to local developers, boosting the value of Perdue’s land, and his 2005 signature of a sweeping law that saved him $100,000 in state taxes. Perdue has repeatedly said he did not know the law covered transactions like his purchase of land in Florida with proceeds from a sale of land in Georgia. Previously, the tax break was available only on the purchase of land within Georgia.
A spokeswoman for Perdue told the Times that political gamesmanship was behind complaints of missteps by the two-term governor. In 2002, Perdue was the first Republican elected governor of Georgia since Reconstruction.
In 2004, the timber company that owned the Georgia wildlife preserve known as Oaky Woods offered to sell the land to the state, but it declined to bid on the 20,000 acres. Eventually, the land was sold to developers. Before the sale, an attorney for Perdue registered a company, Maryson LLC, that bought 101 acres adjacent to Oaky Woods, said EWG. “But Perdue reportedly negotiated on behalf of Maryson to buy the 101 acres … The deed was transferred into his name in 2004 and he finally disclosed the acquisition in 2005.”
EWG said a legislator who also was a longtime real estate attorney for Perdue engineered language in the tax bill to cover land-swap investments retroactively to 2004, which included Perdue’s dealings. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained a memo from a lawyer in the governor’s office that described the land-swap transactions covered by the bill. Perdue was audited by the Internal Revenue Service because of the Florida land purchase but did not owe additional taxes, the lawmaker behind the provision told the Associated Press in 2009.
EWG said Perdue was ordered to return $30,000 in improper contributions to his 2002 campaign, including money from three companies that he owned and later violated his own executive order barring state officials from taking more than $25 in gifts from a lobbyist. “Will he commit to putting his substantial agriculture-related businesses in a blind trust if confirmed as secretary of agriculture?” asked EWG.
“Perdue, like (President) Trump now, had people who were close to him manage his assets, and did not place them in a blind trust. In both cases, it leads to questions about ethics, particularly when a leader can make financial gains from their decisions,” said Better Georgia, a group that describes itself as “advancing quality of life, economic justice, equality and government accountability,” shortly after Perdue’s nomination was announced. In mid-February, the group said, “As governor of Georgia, he killed the green space program, designed with conservation in mind, and replaced it with one that allowed continued harvesting of trees on rural lands where the state had purchased development rights.
Groups throughout the farming and agribusiness sector embraced Perdue earlier this year as someone with “a personal understanding of the unique needs of rural America.” In a letter with a 17-page list of signers, the groups said, “Though some (agriculture secretaries) were raised on a farm, only two actually lived and worked in agriculture as adults. If confirmed, Sonny Perdue will be number three.”