That's special.
It was a pharmacy in Arkansas bought by a pharmacy chain.
Mike Ross. This link for this Arkansas Rep.
Olberman, on Ross, "And so far in your career, Congressman Ross, your total [campaign contribution and not personal] haul from the health sector is $921,000. That's 90th in the combined list of donations for the House and the Senate, sir, 90th out of 537," in context; this link. And that context is informative, so please have a look. People with probable agendas, spending, or call it investing - investing in their futures?
And Ross is shocked, shocked! that some speculate that influence peddling was part of the deal, with him now being the leading voice of Blue Dog posturing on what's to be done about healthcare in the US of A. As if the one is connected to the other. Sheer character assassination, obviously, is at play; and the question of how a growing pharmacy chain can grow doing business that way - if every purchase of an existing operation is that cozy to sellers - well, that question must be irrelevant. I would bet and give odds that Ross believes it so.
Form your own view, the online record is mainly:
Politico first reported details of the business deal. This link.
The buyer: an Arkansas-based pharmacy chain with a keen interest in how the debate plays out.
Ross sold Holly’s Health Mart in Prescott, Ark., to USA Drug for $420,000 — an eye-popping price for real estate in a tiny train and lumber town about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock.
“You can buy half the town for $420,000,” said Adam Guthrie, chairman of the county Board of Equalization and the only licensed real estate appraiser in Prescott.
But the $420,000 that USA Drug paid for the pharmacy’s building and land was just the beginning of what Ross and his wife, Holly, made from the sale of Holly’s Health Mart. USA Drug owner Stephen L. LaFrance Sr. also paid the Rosses $500,000 to $1 million for the pharmacy’s assets and paid Holly Ross an additional $100,000 to $250,000 for signing a noncompete agreement. Those numbers, which Mike Ross listed on the financial disclosure reports he files as a member of Congress, bring the total value of the transaction to between $1 million and $1.67 million.
And that’s not counting the $2,300 campaign contribution Ross received from LaFrance two weeks after the sale closed.
Holly Ross remains the pharmacist at Holly’s Health Mart under USA Drug. Neither she nor her husband agreed to speak with ProPublica for this story.
At the time of the 2007 sale, the county assessor’s office valued the pharmacy’s building and the land on which it sits at $263,000 — nearly $160,000 less than the Rosses got for it.
Because an assessor’s valuations don’t always reflect true market value, ProPublica hired Guthrie to appraise the property. He placed the current value of the lot and building at $198,000, substantially lower than the county’s assessment, which was raised from $263,000 to $269,000 this year. Guthrie explained the difference between his appraisal and the county assessment by saying county assessments have been running higher than actual market value.
Mike Ross frequently speaks for the coalition of House moderates known as the Blue Dogs, a group that helped force changes to the version of the health care reform bill drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The role has lifted him to national prominence in recent months.
Ross issued a statement, Politico included it and brief rebuttal detail. This link.
If you want more -- this Google.
For myself, I would never mistrust a guy like that. Just a smart businessman, after all. Savvy. Knows how to negotiate and close a sale. And Holly Ross, look at her dilemma - she cannot leave the pharma-purchaser paying her whatever the salary is, to go elsewhere in that tiny town to run a competing operation. A noncompete. You have to give up something in any deal. But follow the Ross Rule.
Price it favorably.
In any event, no one is accusing Mike Ross of saying, "But what have you done for me lately."
I have not read any story, either, raising accusations of biting any hand that feeds him.
Mike and Holly. An all-American couple. Will they next be together, on Dancing With the Stars?
HuffPo, here, heaps scorn on Ross. I say it's not just Ross.
It's Arkansas.
[Mike Ross photo, this link.]
