Chicago Tribune
June 28, 2006
Take a secret land trust, a booming real estate market and a
long-sought nearby highway. Add a secret federal funding process known
as a congressional "earmark," as in "let's earmark that money for this
project." The result when all those elements become public knowledge
can be embarrassing, as House Speaker Dennis Hastert now has discovered.
Hastert denies there is any connection between the profit (pegged at
$1.5 million to $1.8 million) he made from selling land in booming
Kendall County to a housing developer and the $207 million in federal
funding he secured via earmarks for the proposed Prairie Parkway in the
area.
Let's look at how all this came to pass.
Half of the 138 acres that Hastert sold last December to the developer
was bought in the name of Hastert's wife, Jean, in 2002, then later
transferred to a secret land trust.
The trust purchased the other half of the acreage to give Hastert's
land access to a road. The Little Rock Trust No. 225 took its name from
Little Rock Road in Plano, which borders the property. The trust
included three partners: Hastert; Dallas Ingemunson, the Kendall County
GOP chairman and a longtime Hastert supporter; and Thomas Klatt, owner
of a local trucking company. But only Ingemunson's name was listed in
public records.
Such secret land trusts are common in Illinois. They are troublesome
because they can be used to disguise the true ownership of land in
public records. Hastert and friends deny that was the intent. "When you
have multiple owners a land trust is easier to deal with," Ingemunson
told the Tribune earlier this month. "It wasn't an attempt to hide
anything."
Hastert inserted two earmarks into last year's transportation bill--one
for $152 million that would help fund the Prairie Parkway and one for a
$55 million interchange. The parkway interchange is about 5 miles from
the property he held in secret. Earmarks only become public knowledge
after the fact. There's no chance for scrutiny in advance. The House
under Hastert has turned the earmark into an art form.
There is nothing secret about Hastert's support for the Prairie
Parkway. He has advocated for years for the controversial north-south
route through Kendall County, which would connect Interstate Highways
80 and 88. Why he felt that funding for this route should have to be
cloaked in earmark secrecy is a mystery.
Congress should do away with the earmark process. It promotes needless
spending on pet projects and hides the tracks of the members who push
for those projects. Congress has been stalling on ethics reform in the
wake of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal--including proposals to
eliminate the secret earmark process.
It's business as usual. Last week the House passed the $427.6 billion
defense appropriations bill. It contained money for Iraq and
Afghanistan, a military pay raise, missile defense--and $5 billion in
earmarks for pet projects. Enough.
There's no law against the speaker profiting from a booming real estate
market in his own back yard. Kendall County is one of the fastest
growing counties in the country as acres of farmland are transformed
into exurban housing developments. Hastert is furious that his
integrity has come into question.
But there's no one in the nation who's in a better position to do something about that than the speaker of the House.
One, stay out of secret land deals. Two, eliminate the earmark process.