Gov.-elect Nathan Deal, whose personal financial troubles became an issue in last fall’s campaign, has restructured millions of dollars in loans and will make monthly debt-related payments.
Deal also has named a political supporter to oversee most of his assets after he takes office Monday.
Deal had faced a Feb. 1 deadline to repay the balance of a $2.4 million loan for his daughter’s failed sporting goods business in Habersham County. Deal, who lost an additional $2 million investment in the business, already had cashed in retirement accounts worth about $750,000 to reduce his debt and is trying to sell the site of the former sporting goods store as well as his primary residence in Gainesville.
All of Deal’s personal debt, including mortgages on two homes, has been combined into a single loan, said Randy Evans, the governor-elect’s attorney. Deal and his wife, Sandra, will write monthly checks to cover loan payments, Evans said.
Deal will rely heavily on his salary as governor -- about $140,000 a year. As a former congressman, he also is eligible for a federal pension of about $52,000 a year, and Deal and his wife receive about $48,000 a year in Social Security and other retirement benefits, according to tax filings.
Any other income from business ventures or investments will go into a blind trust overseen by Tifton accountant Jimmy Allen. During the campaign, Allen volunteered to help campaign officials look into financial questions raised in news reports, including Deal’s debt level and his failure to file complete financial disclosures.
The campaign listed Allen’s work as the equivalent of a $5,000 contribution. Allen paid an additional $2,300 in campaign expenses, according to public records, and donated $5,600 to Deal’s campaign. Allen’s wife gave an additional $3,600. Other family members gave $7,600.
In all, Allen and his family contributed $24,100 in cash and services to Deal’s campaign.
Allen will act as Deal’s surrogate in business matters, Evans said. That will include Deal’s ownership of a Gainesville auto salvage company that, until recently, earned about $300,000 a year from business with state government, Evans said.
Deal will have no say in Allen’s decisions about buying, selling or holding his assets, Evans said.
With a blind trust, Evans said, “you don’t have any control. That’s true here.”
A more comprehensive story will appear Friday in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
About the Author
Alan Judd is a former investigative reporter for the AJC. He has written about persistently dangerous apartment complexes in metro Atlanta, juvenile justice, child welfare, sexual abuse by physicians, patient deaths in state psychiatric hospitals, and other topics.
