Texas State Representative sentenced to prison in housing tax credit bribery case

State Representative Terri Hodge (D-Dallas) was sentenced to a year in prison today by a Dallas Federal District judge on bribery changes stemming from the Dallas Low Income Housing Tax Credit corruption trial.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Hodge failed to report $74,000 in income from 2001 to 2005. Of that amount, $32,541 was from Brian and Cheryl Potashnik, Dallas affordable housing developers. The remaining $41,465 was, in part, “campaign contributions which she used for her own personal benefit,” her plea papers state.

The paper reports that the Potashniks, both of whom have pleaded guilty to bribery, let her live in one of their low-income complexes for reduced rent and also bought her about $2,000 worth of carpet.

Will the Texas Sunset Commission take action to reform the housing tax credit statute to ensure that situations like this do not continue to plague the state’s housing tax credit program?

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