We Georgians like to boast of the many areas of natural beauty, imaginative and caring people, leadership in many fields from agriculture to innovative science.

Our pride suffers a serious setback when we are confronted by others concerning our leadership in state government corruption.

Recently, a political writer I occasionally converse with suggested that Georgia has entered the competition with Louisiana for the most corrupt state in America.

At first, I thought this might be a little unfair. In fact, I reviewed what a corrupt mess the whole country has found itself in.

Consider the fact that we have laws that no one, starting with the President of the United States and the agencies he supervises, choose to observe, obey or enforce.

A nation without effective laws is no nation at all. It is at best on the path to anarchy, ultimately oblivion.

It is no wonder that corruption is running rampant throughout the country. The mantra seems to be "Everyone is doing it, why shouldn't we get our share while we have the opportunity?"

No one seems to fear repercussions. Except in some rare instances, there are none. Occasionally when someone gets astray of their power base or becomes so brazen, they may be selectively charged, even indicted.

This in itself represents a danger. When the corruption coalition exposes one of its obvious culprits, the fear of revealing heretofore unknown details and names becomes a problem. Often, the solution is to let it slide, sweep it under the rug, and hope it will go away.

Occasionally there is a courageous prosecutor, or a journalist, who won't compromise principle. Such is a bright light shining, but unfortunately, we see too little of it.

This prelude leads us into what has the appearance of one of the greatest scandals in Georgia history. The phenomenal growth in the net worth of Governor Sonny Perdue while serving in office as governor. His net worth nearly doubled in his first three years in office (from $4.8 million to $8 million).

Let's be clear. There is nothing wrong in the great free enterprise system with accumulating wealth. That is, so long as it is done honestly and within the law.

Gov. Perdue immediately got off to a questionable start by refusing to place his assets in a blind trust as his predecessors have historically done. We won't debate the reasons he put forth to justify that refusal. The blind trust is a protection for the Governor and helps to prevent questions of conflict of interest. It is an elected official's duty to avoid conflicts of interest AND the appearance of conflicts and personal gain based on official acts. No one can argue that failing to use a blind trust is a self-imposed cloud of suspicion that Perdue insisted upon imposing on himself AND a selfish imposition on the public's trust in its elected governor. It's what attorney Steven Harrell calls a "Breach of Trust."

But that's not the end of it. The governor's actions in real estate speculation and development threaten not only the public's trust in him, but involve numerous others brought under his self-imposed cloud.

Let's look at the timing of just a few of the events in the Oaky Woods land purchase and Perdue's $100,000 miracle tax break. You can decide for yourself if the law has been followed or circumvented, or surreptitiously changed, or events hidden from public scrutiny. [ A Complete TimeLine is at bottom. ] We include below links to news stories, opinion, transcripts and other reference material.

July 15, 2003
A corporation, Maryson LLC, is formed by Georgia State Representative, Larry O'Neal, acting as attorney for owners Mary and Sonny Perdue.

July 23, 2003
Maryson LLC buys 101 acres of Houston County land abutting Oaky Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA) for $303,000.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that tax records valued the land at $750,100 after the Oaky Woods sale to private developers in 2004. Taxes on the land were paid in 2003 by Maryson, LLC, and 2004 by Sonny Perdue in his own name.

August 12, 2003
Newnan developer, Stanley Thomas, is appointed by Governor Perdue as a member at large to the Georgia Economic Development Board.

February 20, 2004
Weyerhauser announces intent to sell its Georgia land holdings including the Oaky Woods WMA property. Interested citizens and environmental groups urge the state to buy it as a nature preserve. Oaky Woods has long been known as a habitat for rare plants, animals and birds. It is particularly known as an ideal habitat for black bear. The Nature Conservancy offered to bid $26 million for the property if the State would document intent to buy the land from the Conservancy at an unspecified future date. That is, send a simple letter promising to buy the land from The Conservancy for preservation.

May 2004
Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Lonice Barrett rejects The Conservancy's offer to purchase Oaky Woods WMA for 26 million dollars and sell it to the State at an unspecified future date. This offer would have allowed environmentalists to pursue private and federal grants to help the state finance the purchase.

The reason given for passing up this golden opportunity, this purchase that the DNR had wanted so badly for four decades was....a "tight budget." Yet, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (11/01/06), "that same year the state directed $44 million available to the Department of Natural Resources toward other projects, and Gov. Sonny Perdue proposed borrowing $1 billion in bonds for other priorities." Hmmm. Barrett soon left his DNR post and now serves on the Governor's executive staff.

May 2004
Maryson LLC transfers title to the Houston County land (101 acres adjacent to Oaky Woods) to the Perdues nine days after Barrett rejected the offer from The Nature Conservancy to bid to purchase the Oaky Woods land from Weyerhauser on the State's behalf. Again, The Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that tax records valued the land at $750,100 after the Oaky Woods sale to private developers in 2004. The Perdue's property value more than doubled in about one year. Just lucky we suppose....lucky that the State decided to pass on the purchase of long-desired land.

But more importantly, as the AJC reports, Perdue failed to disclose his ownership interest in the land adjacent to Oaky Woods, AS REQUIRED by law, so as to avoid the obvious conflict of interest when the State was deciding NOT to purchase land it had wanted for decades. A suspicious person might conclude that the Maryson, LLC corporation was created for the purpose of concealing that ownership interest. LLC corporations are often created for the purpose of concealing the partner/owner's identities from public records. Enter Larry O'Neal stage left. What other purpose did the corporation serve? Draw your own conclusions.

Clearly, Perdue won and the public lost on this deal. Our view is that the public trust was sold out to make a sleazy buck; current and future generations were betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. That land was an irreplaceable gem, a unique ecological treasure and now it's destined to be paved over for condos and golf courses.

June 22, 2004
Perdue and sister sell 318 acres of inherited land near Bonaire; Perdue nets 2.9 million dollars for his half.

September 14th, 2004
A group of Houston County developers announce they have won the bidding for Oaky Woods. They close on the Oaky Woods land for 32.1 million dollars.

Dec. 17, 2004
Perdue buys 19.51 acres for 2 million dollars from Stanley Thomas Developers in Oceola County, Florida. The land is near the toll road leading to Disney World. It is estimated, depending on development, to be worth anywhere from 20 to 40 million dollars.

Political columnist Bill Shipp (noted for intense dislike of Perdue) contends that the land in Florida is virtually worthless; that it was purchased solely for a tax haven to avoid paying federal capital gains taxes on the inherited land he sold in June 2004 (which had to be reinvested within 180 days to avoid the tax). Either way, the Florida land's true value is irrelevant to the retroactive tax law change for Georgia income tax purposes.

February 15th, 2005
Georgia House Ways and Means Chairman, Larry O'Neal, introduces HB 488 which defers taxes on land sales starting in 2005 when "like" property is purchased in another state.

March 4,2005
O'Neal's committee approves HB 488.

March 11, 2005
Georgia House passes HB 488

March 17,2005
Senate Finance Committee passes HB 488

March 22, 2005
Senate Rules Committee sends HB 488 back for changes.

March 22, 2005
House Ways and Means Chairman (and Perdue lawyer) O'Neal brings HB 488 to Senate Finance Committee with changes making the tax deferment retroactive to 2004 instead of 2005 and forward.

Motion made by Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson, to make the change retroactive to 2004 passed.

Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham whose department originally wrote HB 488, stated that he was not at the meeting which determined to make the retroactive change in the deferment.

March 29, 2005
HB 488 amended passes both the House and the Senate with no debate or questions. (As the AJC reported, it passed in "three minutes" and saved Perdue $100,000 in taxes.)

April 11,2005
HB 488 transmitted to governor.

April 12, 2005
HB 488 signed by Govneror Perdue into law.

April 15, 2005
Perdue files taxes, takes deferment for out of state land puchase resulting in tax savings of approximately $100,000.

Tax Commissioner acknowledges that only one Georgia citizen took advantage of the retroactive 2004 tax deferment passed by the 2005 General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Perdue. That citizen was Governor Perdue.

Keep in mind that all the above events are a matter of public record (the House journal, tax records, property records, etc.). These are not 'fevered conspiracy theories' in the political attack ads of Mark Taylor, as characterized by Perdue who dismissed Taylor's ads as those of a desperate and deceitful candidate. Neither the AJC (characterized by Perdue as "Taylor's attack dog") or Taylor made up the facts and the public records and neither Perdue nor O'Neal nor anyone else has offered a satisfactory explanation of these events to the public.

When questioned, both Gov. Perdue and Ways & Means Chairman O'Neal denied ever having a conversation about the fact that the retroactive tax change in HB 488 would benefit Perdue on his 2004 tax return. Perdue denies any prior knowledge of the tax change--period. O'Neal denies that the change was made with Perdue in mind as the beneficiary or at Perdue's behest. O'Neal doesn't know WHY he requested the retroactive change. We are left to believe that it was just a miraculous coincidence. Just as miraculous was that Perdue's tax preparer knew about the tax law change signed into law on April 12th and was able to take advantage of it for his client and get the prepared forms to Perdue for signature by the April 15th filing deadline.

Words fail us to describe the awe these miracles inspire. Even more miraculous---but much more depressing--- was that the people of Georgia had ample opportunity to be informed about these 'miracles' and still voted to re-elect Sonny Perdue as Governor.

No doubt that opponent Mark Taylor had his own conflict baggage and neither can claim the "ethical high ground," but it appears to us that Boss Sonny "B.S." Perdue makes Louisiana's Huey Long look like a Boy Scout, only with less charisma. In fact, B.S. Perdue's lampoon-worthy antics have inspired an entire series of parodies.

With apologies to C.S. Lewis, it seems we (Americans and Georgians) laugh at honor and integrity, we wink and look the other way when corruption is under our noses, and then we are shocked to find liars and sleazy crooks in high elected office.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana there are finally indictments issued against Congressman Jefferson, also known as "the refrigerator banker." Does that mean Georgia has taken the lead in averting its eyes from alleged corruption?

There will be more. Stay tuned.

"...such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—---we continue to clamour for those very qualities we are rendering impossible.... We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst." ---C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man