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MinM

(2,650 posts)
Tue Jun 17, 2014, 03:23 PM Jun 2014

Pfizer’s $1,000 donation to Snyder’s NERD fund returned

Pfizer’s $1,000 donation to Snyder’s NERD fund returned

This is how hard it can be to find out which companies are donating to politicians in Michigan.

Metro Times has confirmed a second corporate donor who backed Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s controversial New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify (NERD) Fund.

In 2013, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. donated $1,000 to the governor’s nonprofit. That voluntary admission was lodged deep in a company document detailing Pfizer’s political contributions last year — and not the records of Snyder’s nonprofit, as it’s not legally required to disclose its donors.

Pfizer’s disclosure makes it only the second publicly revealed donor of the NERD Fund. Last fall, Snyder said he would dissolve the fund just weeks after the Center for Public Integrity reported CVS Caremark Corp. had donated $1,000 in March of 2012. A spokesman for Pfizer says the money was eventually refunded.

“Our records indicate that we received a full refund for our $1,000 contribution as the donation was processed after the Fund had been disbanded,” Sharon Castillo, of Pfizer, tells Metro Times in an email.

The nonprofit drew heavy criticism for not disclosing donors because it covered some of Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s housing and travel costs, as well as footing the salary of Rich Baird, an old friend and aide of Snyder’s who played a role in Orr’s appointment. After announcing the dissolution of the fund, the governor’s office said Baird would join the state payroll as an appointed “transformation manager” with a $140,000-a-year salary.

In spite of the refund to Pfizer, the NERD Fund has raised close $2 million, says Rich Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, which still raises disturbing questions about transparency in government.

“The gesture of sending back $1,000 is small compared to that; it’s not the $1,000, it’s the knowledge of who’s putting the real money into this thing,” Robinson tells Metro Times...

Read more:: http://blogs.metrotimes.com/news-blawg/pfizer-contributes-1000-gov-rick-snyders-now-dissolved-nerd-fund-2nd-confirmed-donor/
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Pfizer’s $1,000 donation to Snyder’s NERD fund returned (Original Post) MinM Jun 2014 OP
Sunshine is the BEST disinfectant for corruption of the body politic and corporate Demeter Jun 2014 #1
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