PRI Chapter 60: 500 Acres and 10 Years Tax-Free

Texas was an old red state.

Although the Democratic Party had dominated Texas during the mid-20th century, because the Democrats promoted civil rights legislation and supported racial equality between blacks and whites nationwide.

This caused conservative white voters in the South to gradually distance themselves from the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party timely introduced the "Southern Strategy," attracting these voters with conservative political ideals.

As an important southern state, Texas was naturally no exception.

Of course, there were also economic reasons, religious reasons, and reasons related to growing Latino population.

In short, starting from 1990, Texas gradually turned red, reaching its peak in 2000.

Currently, Bush Jr., as the face of the Republican Party, was ambitiously running for president, and the Texas state government was entirely controlled by Republicans.

Including but not limited to positions like lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and comptroller, all were Republican.

So this land commissioner, David Durst, was naturally also a Republican.

After Lind understood the meaning behind this name, he immediately realized.

Old Edward had also been a staunch Republican during his lifetime. As a businessman who was very successful in the first half of his life, having close relationships with the state government was quite normal.

So he had originally purchased the prison land through this David Durst?

Then obviously, the land purchase opportunity rewarded by the system referred to this guy.

Therefore, he directly got up and went to the prison entrance to meet this friend of Old Edward.

"Hey, Young Edward! Long time no see."

A balding middle-aged man holding a hat stood by an old Lincoln sedan and waved at Lind.

Seeing him, Lind finally recalled this person's name and background.

Val Farrell, Old Edward's former business partner, was a broker who mainly made money by handling affairs for people.

However, looking at his car and clothes, it seemed business hadn't been going well recently but Lind still warmly embraced him.

"Uncle Farrell, long time no see."

After the two exchanged false pleasantries, they returned to the prison office together.

"Edward, the reason I came to find you this time is to tell you good news!" Farrell looked excited, as if he had something incredible to tell Lind.

Lind followed his lead curiously, "What is it?"

"An invitation!" Farrell stared at Lind with an expression that suggested he could never guess.

"A Republican invitation?"

Farrell was surprised, "You guessed it?"

"Mm-hmm." Lind waved the letter in his hand, "You've already given me a hint."

"Hahaha, that's right, it's a Republican invitation." Farrell laughed, "I secured you a spot at the campaign banquet. How's that, pretty good right?"

"How much?" Lind didn't believe pies would fall from the sky.

Currently, the American presidential campaign was about to enter the national stage. After the March 7 primary ended, Bush Jr. had become the Republican presidential candidate.

Holding a campaign banquet now was definitely to create momentum, expand influence, and incidentally raise funds.

After all, even though Texas was the Republicans' home turf, it couldn't be neglected.

So those able to participate in this banquet were necessarily wealthy donors and allies with real power.

Small players like Lind had no qualification to listen to Bush Jr.'s speech on site.

Farrell coming to him was probably to get Lind to pay for tickets.

"Hey, talking about money hurts feelings." Farrell's expression didn't change, "Your father and I were very good friends."

"So you'll pay for me?" Lind teased.

"Uh." Farrell was momentarily choked by the response, then spread his hands, "I mean, I can give you a discount."

"What's the discounted price?"

"This number." Farrell held up one finger.

"One thousand dollars?"

"No, ten thousand dollars."

Lind turned to pick up the phone, "Angelina, the guest is preparing to leave."

"Hey! Edward, I haven't finished talking." Farrell stood up in surprise.

"But it seems to me you have finished." Lind showed no courtesy.

Just a state campaign banquet, daring to charge ten thousand dollars?

Really treating him like a sucker to scam.

Seeing this, Farrell quickly waved his hands, "I was just joking, no need for ten thousand dollars, five thousand will do."

"Take your time leaving, don't let me see you out." Lind sneered and tapped the service bell on the table.

Soon, Angelina pushed open the door and looked at Farrell, "Sir, this way please."

Farrell said unwillingly, "Young Edward, I'm trying to help you. Do you know how rare the opportunity to connect with those politicians is? Old Edward spent quite a bit of money back then to gain David's friendship and qualify to purchase this land."

"So now David needs money again?" Lind spoke bluntly.

Farrell glanced at Angelina.

"You can go out first." Lind gestured for his secretary to leave.

"Click." After the door closed, Farrell sat back on the sofa, just like at the beginning.

However, he no longer dared to underestimate this son of Old Edward.

Honestly, Farrell's impression of Lind still remained based on Old Edward's various complaints, sleeping with women, playing with racehorses, gambling, drug use.

Anyone would know such a rich second generation was just a hopeless waste.

Farrell had thought that after he took over Old Edward's prison, he would mess things up badly, even sell the prison due to poor management.

But unexpectedly, months later, when he heard about Young Edward again, what he heard was about Border Prison passing government inspection and receiving several million dollars in funding.

This immediately made him realize the money-making opportunity.

After all, such fat and wealthy second generations who knew nothing about political-business relationships were rare.

However, Lind's sharpness exceeded his expectations, and his decisive attitude formed a stark contrast with the indecisive waste son that Old Edward had described.

Had his personality changed after his father's death?

Although Farrell didn't know what Lind had experienced, facing the risk of rejection, he became much more cautious.

After thinking, he said, "Actually, to raise funds for our presidential candidate, this banquet is larger in scale than previous ones."

"But even so, tickets aren't easy to get. I barely managed to buy them from a friend, only 3 tickets total, so..."

Lind held up two fingers, "One thousand dollars."

"What?" Farrell was stunned.

"I'll only pay one thousand dollars." Lind crossed his arms, looking calm, "If you sell to me, we'll continue discussing future cooperation. If you don't sell, then leave through that door."

Farrell opened his mouth. He hadn't expected Lind to have seen through his intentions, knowing he came with other tasks.

Shit, he had originally wanted to make more money.

Now it seemed impossible.

So after thinking for a moment, Farrell looked troubled, "Alright, Edward, I'm scared of you. Just one thousand dollars, but I'm losing a lot of money on this deal."

Lind didn't believe a single word from his mouth.

After settling on the price, their conversation returned to David Durst.

"Actually, the reason I came to find you is because the land department has several plots of land in sensitive locations that they plan to sell, and they need some trustworthy buyers. And I happen to know who's trustworthy."

Farrell spoke eloquently, "So when David commissioned me to find suitable people, I immediately thought of you."

"I heard your prison is doing very well, right? So would you like to expand? I remember Old Edward only bought the military base itself. Now there's an opportunity to encompass all the surrounding land. How about it, interested?"

Hearing this, Lind secretly nodded. Indeed, it was the purchase opportunity rewarded by the system.

However, even if he wanted it, he couldn't go along with Farrell's words, otherwise he would definitely be scammed out of a large sum of money.

So he shook his head, "Although I'm very interested, the prison has many expenses this year, so let's forget it."

"Don't decide so quickly!" Farrell persuaded, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You know this is 500 acres of land! If you miss it, there won't be a next time."

"Think about it, after buying this land, all these mountains and forests will belong to you. You can do agriculture here, and you'll definitely make a lot of money."

"Forget it." Lind said disdainfully, "How much money can agriculture make? It might take five years just to earn back my investment."

"It's not that expensive, really! Edward, you just need 4 million dollars to take down this entire area!" Farrell tried his best to paint a rosy picture.

But Lind wasn't buying it at all, "4 million?! I don't even make that much running the prison for a year."

Bullshit!

Farrell thought to himself, don't think I don't know how much government funding you got!

A full 6 million plus dollars, if it weren't for this money, why would David specifically call me over to dangle the bait?

However, seeing that Lind was unmoved and wouldn't bite, Farrell could only propose more tempting terms.

"As long as you buy this land, the state government can waive taxes on this land for 5 years!"

Although products produced by prisons qualified for tax exemption, not all prison production could get tax exemption.

If it was a non-profit project, or if the income was used for prison operations, then tax exemption could be applied for but if it was profit-oriented products, the government would still collect taxes, just less than private enterprises.

So this clause was quite tempting.

However, after hearing this, Lind directly made an outrageous demand, "If you want me to buy land, fine. 2 million dollars, plus 10 years tax-free."

Farrell was immediately startled, "That's impossible!"

"Everything is possible, Uncle Farrell." Lind showed a miserly smile, "This land is only worth that much to me, but if you can help me negotiate this price, I'll give you an additional generous reward. How about it?"

Farrell immediately became conflicted.

Lind crossed his legs, his toe gently swaying.

He knew Farrell would definitely agree to him.

Because in this uncle's panel, under the weakness column, several words were clearly written:

Loves taking small advantages.

[NEXT CHAPTER]