Perdue's big loan still a puzzle

Perdue paid off the loan in full before the March 1 due date, said Bert Brantley, the governor's press secretary. But the lender's claim against Perdue's collateral will remain in force, Brantley said, because Perdue still has a secured line of credit for his grain elevator businesses and expects to exercise the option to borrow as much as another $21 million.

Brantley described the debt as "a normal business loan in the operation of his business."

"This is the business he's run over the years," Brantley said. "Any suggestion that he's getting anything because he's governor or because of his position is not true."

Perdue, who championed extensive financial disclosure by public officials early in his tenure, declined last week to release documents to verify the loan's payment.

Perdue contends that if he had not repaid the loan, "there would have been action taken" by the lender in court, Brantley said. "Absence of action taken indicates the loan has been paid off."

The loan attracted interest after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported its existence in January. Several Georgia government watchdogs and newspaper editorials urged Perdue to explain why he borrowed the money and how he planned to pay it back by the due date, which fell during the General Assembly's annual session.

Until recently, however, Perdue stayed silent. In recent weeks, through his spokesman, the governor has offered an evolving account of the loan's status.

On May 15, Brantley quoted the governor as saying the loan had been paid in full, on time. As for the lender's failure to cancel its claim to Perdue's collateral, Brantley said, "he assumed the documents would show that."

Six days later, on May 21, Brantley repeated that the loan had been repaid. As for the lack of documentation, he said: "I don't think it's urgent. There's no reason to be concerned about it."

On Friday, May 22, Brantley said Perdue might be willing to show loan payment documents to a reporter, and the Journal-Constitution delayed publication of an article on the matter.

But last week, Brantley said Perdue had decided to release no records. For the first time, Brantley said that, although Perdue had repaid the loan, he still had an outstanding line of credit with the lender. Rising grain prices, he said, necessitated the large amount of credit.

Perdue and his wife, Mary, signed loan papers Sept. 26, 2008. Perdue had never before borrowed more than $10 million for his businesses, public records show. And, for the first time, the Perdues pledged their home in Bonaire, along with 12 other pieces of real estate.

Those parcels are worth a total of about $1.6 million, according to appraisals and other public records. Perdue also obligated his businesses — Houston Fertilizer and Grain and AGrowStar — and their assets, which he has reported on disclosure forms to be worth $2.3 million. The last time Perdue listed his net worth, in 2006, it was $6.1 million.

That collateral covered just 19 percent of the loan's value. Most commercial lenders require guarantees of at least 50 percent of the amount borrowed, banking experts say.

Grain elevators need substantial financing to cover their positions in the futures markets, a need exacerbated by drastic fluctuations in grain prices, said John McKissick, director of the Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development at the University of Georgia. The elevator operators may back their loans with the expected value of the grain they plan to buy from farmers, he said.

Perdue's loan, Brantley said, was "fully collateralized."

Perdue borrowed the money from AgGeorgia Farm Credit, based in Perry. At the time, the bank's reports to regulators show, its commercial loan portfolio totaled just $55 million.

AgGeorgia had made several other loans to Perdue's businesses, dating at least to the mid-1990s. The bank's leaders were familiar with the governor in another capacity: Eight of the institution's 23 directors contributed to Perdue's re-election campaign in 2006.

Perdue could leave office in January 2011 without ever disclosing much about the loan.

The annual financial disclosures that elected officials must file contain little detail, except in election years. With term limits prohibiting Perdue from running for governor again, he won't again have to subject his personal and business finances to significant public scrutiny unless he seeks another office.

Throughout his tenure as governor, a job that paid $137,310 during the last fiscal year, Perdue has kept command of his business affairs, aides say. He has bought and sold real estate in Georgia and Florida while overseeing the grain elevator businesses. From 2002, when Perdue first ran for governor, until 2006, when he won a second term, his net worth increased by more than one-third.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes, whom Perdue defeated in 2002, reported that his holdings lost 25 percent of their value during his single, four-year term.

Unlike Perdue, Barnes placed his financial interests in a blind trust; his two immediate predecessors, Govs. Zell Miller and Joe Frank Harris, had done the same. Perdue has said his businesses would have suffered without his involvement.

That involvement does not require "day-to-day" attention, Brantley said.

"He is not running those businesses out of the Capitol," Brantley said. "He is governor. ... It's not like he's spending hours a day running his businesses back home."

Perdue owns grain elevators in seven small towns: Bonaire, Davisboro, Rosier, Calhoun, Wrens, Fort Valley and DeSoto. The elevators buy grain from farmers and resell it to food processors through the Chicago Board of Trade.

The Bonaire location, near Perdue's home, sits on a dusty gravel lot between U.S. 129 and the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. Nothing indicates its connection to the state's chief executive.

A small sign by the highway says simply, "AGrowStar: The Real McCoy in Grain Marketing."