Beneficiary of state grant has links to Perry

[rainbow4321]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3300218

Gov. Rick Perry recently made one of his largest taxpayer-financed economic development grants ever to a biotech venture. The deal was orchestrated by a congressman who owned stock in the firm, Lexicon Genetics Inc., a company in The Woodlands whose major investors include some of Perry's top campaign contributors.

The grant, announced July 16, equals the largest ever made by Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund for economic development. The $300 million fund makes grants at the governor's discretion. Democrats have called it a political "slush fund" designed to make legal but politically beneficial investments for the governor.

Some of the major Lexicon investors who have held a controlling interest in the company are Houston businessmen who have been top financiers of Perry's political career. They are Houston Texans owner Robert C. McNair, businessman William A. McMinn and the estate of businessman Gordon Cain and his family. They own 16.5 percent of the company, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records, making them the largest group of stockholders.

<snip>

"These are folks who are very supportive of him," Coleman said. "It's a pretty good trade: I give you hundreds of thousands of dollars and you give me back millions, millions of the taxpayers' dollars."