Martha P. Snead's blog

4,200 manufacturing jobs lost state-wide

Since North Carolina Congressman Charles Taylor (R-11) failed to vote against CAFTA last July 27, his district has suffered 2,106 announced job losses.

According to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, 505 jobs were lost from “import competition,” 313 from “relocation to Mexico,” 170 from “competition,” 175 from “declining demand,” and 155 from “financial difficulty.”

As well, North Carolina has lost 4,200 state-wide manufacturing jobs.

North Carolina Congressman Charles Taylor (R-11) held up a White House request for funding for Flight 93 memorial for two years. Taylor only relented in May, 2006 when publicity from a related movie brought on massive media attention. Taylor cited an undisclosed agreement as the reason for his change of heart. According to Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook, Jr, there was a similar signed agreement to fund the Oklahoma City bombing memorial. And Taylor has since reneged, denying the Oklahoma memorial their promised $2 million.

Emails obtained by the Associated Press implicate North Carolina Congressman Charles Taylor (R-11) in a complex scheme with several other congressmen and senators to benefit one of convicted felon Jack Abramoff’s clients, Michigan’s Chippewa Saginaw tribe.

According to FEC reports filed by the Taylor campaign, Taylor had received $27,750 from Indian Tribes and Abramoff and his associates.

The emails delineate a conspiracy to pressure congressmen and staff in the Interior Department’s funding process. Appropriations for the Interior Department (including the Bureau of Indian Affairs) in 2003 fell under the appropriations subcommittee Taylor chaired.

While sworn to represent the interests of his constituents and those of the United States, Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) agressively pursued his own financial interest, purchasing a Russian bank with a former KGB operative, former General Boris Bolshakov.

The only American to own a Russian bank, Bank of Ivanovo, Taylor also owns an investment company, Columbus, that does business exclusively in Russia. In addition, Taylor profits from many and varied business interests in and around Ivanovo, a former manufacturing city 200 miles east of Moscow.

In 2000, he sponsored legislation that would have channeled money to banks like Bolshakov's former bank, SBS-Agro, and the Bank of Ivanovo (which Taylor purchased in 2003). When Taylor sponsored the home mortgage legislation, he had been doing business with Bolshakov for years.

• DAV rating • Taylor's Indian Betrayal • CAFTA • National Park crisis •Forest Service budget cuts • Flight 93 flip-flop • Ethics

Taylor implicated in Abramoff influence-peddling schemes: Emails obtained by the Associated Press implicate North Carolina Congressman Charles Taylor (R-11) in a complex scheme with several other congressmen and senators to benefit one of convicted felon Jack Abramoff’s clients . . .

Officials closely tied to Taylor's Savings & Loan convicted of fraud, money laundering: In 2001, two close political and business associates of North Carolina Rep. Charles Taylor (R-11) pled guilty and were convicted of bank fraud and conspiracy to money laundering involving loans of $2.27 million . . .

Taylor wields congressional influence to reap profits in Russia:

Blue Ridge Savings & Loan has history of banking violations

In 2001, two close political and business associates of North Carolina Rep. Charles Taylor (R-11) pled guilty and were convicted of bank fraud and conspiracy to money laundering involving loans of $2.27 million.

Throughout the 90s Taylor’s bank, Blue Ridge Savings and Loan, repeatedly broke federal banking rules that limit how much money an institution of its size can lend to any one borrower. In 1991, the bank, headquartered in Asheville, NC, was reprimanded for violating their $500,000 lending limit.

Bill designed to delay $500 million Hudson River PCB cleanup

North Carolina Representative Charles Taylor’s (R-11) staff added language to a budget bill in 2005 to favor General Electric (GE) Corporation.

In fact, according to the Albany Times-Union a member of Taylor’s staff said GE drafted the initial language. The legislation then went back and forth between the congressional staff and the company before it was added to last year’s appropriations bill.

The company gave $8,250 to Taylor in 2003-04, making it Taylor’s seventh-largest donor, according to campaign finance records kept by the Center for Responsive Politics at its website. According to the site, the company was not one of Taylor’s top 20 contributors in 2001-02 or 1999-2000.

On May 16, 2003, a bank teller and two customers were murdered in a bank owned by Charles Taylor’s holding company. Vulnerable because of several ignored security recommendations, the Blue Ridge Savings Bank branch in Greer, SC was robbed of an estimated $2,000 to $3,000 at 1:30 p.m.

Blue Ridge Savings is a subsidiary of Financial Guarantee, Inc., a company owned by NC Representative Charles Taylor (R-11).

The Greer branch was located in a singlewide trailer on a dead-end road off Interstate 85. Bank employee Sylvia Holtzclaw was working alone the day of the robbery, when customers Maggie and “Eb” Barnes entered. All three were later found dead, shot at close range. No tape was found in the bank's single indoor security camera. Counter to all industry standards, there were no operable outdoor cameras. Since the robbery, the bank has employed full-time guards.

Although cited as reason in years of endorsements there’s no evidence North Carolina Rep. Charles Taylor (NC-11) actually “brings home” any “bacon.”

Most constituents assume Taylor can acquire federal funding for his home district because he sits on the House Appropriations Committee which oversees the federal budget.

Because he chairs the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the Department of the Interior, he is also expected to bring back funds for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, as well as numerous national forests located in his 11th congressional district. However, that does not seem to be the case.

In addition to the numerous banking and ethics violations attributed to Representative Charles Taylor’s (R-11) Asheville-based Blue Ridge Savings Bank, the Congressman has also been found in violation of several FEC regulations, Asheville housing and zoning codes and occupancy permits.

Taylor’s opponent, Highlands attorney John Armor has enumerated Taylor’s many inconsistencies in his personal asset filings, but Taylor also has filed inaccurate FEC campaign finance reports, as well as used campaign funds for personal expenses.

Jackson County moved to garnish Congressional wages

North Carolina Congressman Charles Taylor (R-11) received forestry tax breaks on land owned in Jackson County, NC. In 1998, when requested, Taylor refused to submit a land management plan to prove it warranted that tax break.

He also has has a history of failing to pay property taxes in Haywood and Transylvania counties. Transylvania County failed to collect some of the back taxes owed because a 10-year time limit had run out. Haywood only received the moneys owed when they ordered the sheriff to collect the money in 90 days or sell the land.

Beginning this afternoon, I will be posting a series of summaries of different incidents history of North Carolina's Rep. Charles Taylor (R-11) failures as a representative, as a businessman and as a citizen.

While each entry will be compilations from previously published articles, I feel there needs to be some place on the web (or anywhere else, for that matter) where the bulk of this information has been compiled.

I will try to keep track of my sources within or at the end of each document. But, with the massive amount of material, I am sure to make errors or oversights. I will try to correct these as noted.