THE LINDA HARPER-BENZ SCANDAL
Remember our prior post on the scandal about how State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown was caught driving a brand-new 2010 Mercedes-Benz ME550 Sedanthat was given to her by a state contractor, Durable Enterprises Ltd.? We've discovered shocking new information on the scandal surrounding Harper-Benz.
Apparently State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown billed the Texas Comptroller for $13,000 in mileage reimbursement funds. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if the mileage reimbursement funds were used on her privately owned cars. However, she has three cars that were given to her by Durable Enterprises, Ltd., and Texan taxpayers have a right to know whether taxpayer funds were used on these cars that weren't even legally hers.
This brings up very good questions about the mileage reimbursement incurred by Harper-Brown, as asked by a local Texan blogger:
Let's start with this question: "If the Mercedes didn't belong to the Representative, why is she being paid for mileage from the Comptrollers Office?"
According to records from the Texas Comptroller's office Representative Brown was paid over $13,000 for "7102 TRAV IN-STATE MILEAGE" from 2008-2010. This would amount to over 26,000 miles of usage of her own privately owned vehicle at 50 cents per mile, the standard government rate. But according to the article, this Mercedes is not her privately owned vehicle (POV). So how can she request and be paid for mileage for a POV?
Usually this payment is to cover the cost of maintenance, gasoline, insurance, and general use of your POV. Maybe Brown owns another car for legislative purposes which qualifies her for mileage payments, although her official state license plates are on the Mercedes. Also, this mileage may have been for a car prior to the 2010 Mercedes. Who knows?
We don't know precisely if the mileage reimbursement was for her Mercedes-Benz or one of the two other cars she got from Durable, but given that she had state official license plates slapped on the Mercedes, questions definitely pop up as to whether the $13,000 that Harper-Brown got from the Texas Comptroller was from the use of her Mercedes-Benz or these other cars.
This also isn't the first time that State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown has asked Texan taxpayers to foot the bill for her cars. Another disgusting part of the scandal is the letter that she wrote to the Texas Department of Transportation, demanding that taxpayers foot the bill for damages to her Mercedes-Benz, which was caused by a pothole in the road.
Indeed, maybe State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown should've billed her contractor friend instead, since they're good friends, as you can see in the photo to the right, where Linda Harper-Brown is wearing a jacket with the Durable Enterprises Ltd. logo. Did you also know she had that photo right there on her Twitter page?
She also likely wouldn't have been turned down by Durable for the bill on damages to her car as she was turned downby the TXDOT.
That's an interesting sense of entitlement, demanding that the Texas Department of Transportation use taxpayer money to fix her brand-new Mercedes-Benz car. Moreover, State Rep. Linda Harper-Brown should answer these questions about how she has used the cars given to her by Durable Enterprises Ltd. After all, Texans have a right to know how their taxpayer money is being spent by elected officials like Harper-Brown.
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written by Noelle Bell aka slinkerwink, Director of New Media for Back To Basics PAC