October 7th 2010

The Record Searchlight

By Bruce Ross

October 7, 2010

Corporate giveaways are OK, apparently, if it's for a feel-good company like Humboldt Redwood. Here's the company's explanation of the need and appropriateness of its $20 million tax write-off amid a crippling budget deficit:

“[T]he company's chairman, Sandy Dean, said that had Mendocino Redwood Co. known that bill would come due on top of the roughly $500 million acquisition of PL during bankruptcy proceedings in 2008, it would have scuttled the deal.”

--- SNIP ---

“While the tax fix would apply only to Humboldt Redwood -- whose well-connected owners have contributed some $6 million to California political candidates and causes since 1999, according to the Los Angeles Times -- Dean said that Humboldt Redwood is.. ‘The reason that folks have been receptive to addressing this is because of the unintended consequences and the unique damages that were done to HRC," Dean said.’”

Don't get me wrong, by all accounts the Fishers are far better stewards of the land than Maxxam, but business deals go bad because of changes in the tax law all the time. It's nice to have friends in Sacramento.

– Bruce Ross

http://blogs.redding.com/bross/archives/2010/10/corporate-tax-b.html

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