Your Gas Tax Dollars at Work – for Hastert

Your Gas Tax Dollars at Work – for Hastert

June 20, 2006

The siren song of pork-barrel projects appears to have seduced Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. In August 2002, Hastert and his wife purchased 195 acres of isolated farmland — much of it with no access to roads — located in his home district (IL-14). A year and a half later, with the help of two partners, he purchased another 70 adjacent acres. At the same time, Hastert aggressively pushed for federal funding to build the "Prarie Parkway" through the district. In August 2005, Hastert succeeded. President Bush signed a transportation bill that included $207 million for the "Prarie Parkway." Just four months later, Hastert sold a portion of the land to a real estate developer, earning a profit of at least $1.5 million.

• Hastert’s claims that the parkway did not impact his property value ring hollow. Hastert's spokesman, Ron Bonjean, claimed "None of the properties purchased by the speaker are near enough to the Prairie Parkway to be affected by the proposed highway." (This explanation was later echoed by Hastert himself.) There are a couple of problems with this defense. First, the parkway is only about three miles from Hastert's property, an ideal distance to benefit land value. If land is too close to the parkway, noise pollution will depress property values. Second, Hastert has "talked about the expressway's economic development potential since he took federal office in the 1980s."
  
  
• Hastert did his best to hide the sale. Hastert's financial disclosure forms made it very difficult for the public to learn about his questionable real estate transactions. His 2004 financial disclosure form, for example, said he purchased "1/4 share of land (Plano, Ill.)." But if one went to search the land transactions in Illinois, that purchase wasn't listed under Hastert's name. Rather the purchase was made by Little Rock Trust #225. Hastert's financial disclosure form "makes no mention of the trust." This appears to violate financial disclosure rules in the House ethics manual, which require, "Disclosure of real property should include a description sufficient to permit its identification (e.g., street address or plat and map location)." It took some incredible sleuthing by the Sunlight Foundation to uncover the truth.
  
  
• Hastert is poised to make more money off his land acquisition. $1.5 million in profit is just the beginning. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Speaker is "in prime position to reap further benefits as the exurban region west of Chicago continues its prairie-fire growth boosted by a Hastert-backed federally funded proposed highway." Instead of cash, Hastert accepted more land, including "a one-third interest in a 126-acre property on Miller Road, just south of the ... planned development," in exchange for the property he sold to a developer. Hastert also still owns 125 acres from his initial purchase.