Pennsylvania Tax Giveaways and an Island in the Sun

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Pennsylvania Tax Giveaways and an Island in the Sun
By: ThirdandState Thursday November 8, 2012 9:01 am	Tweet18

This is Oracle's headquarters.

By Jamar Thrasher, Third and State

A few weeks ago, the Pennsylvania General Assembly fast-tracked a bill in the waning days of the legislative session to allow certain private companies to keep most of the state income taxes of new employees. News reports to follow indicated the new tax giveaway was designed to lure California-based software firm Oracle to State College.

Well, it turns out the CEO of Oracle, which will benefit from the largess of Pennsylvania taxpayers, recently bought his very own Hawaiian island, as CNN reported back in June.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, the third richest man in the U.S., purchased about 98% of Lana’i, the sixth largest of the Hawaiian islands. Forbes reported that the deal was rumored to be worth $500 million.

As CNN tells us:

The island includes two luxury resorts, two golf courses, two club houses and 88,000 acres of land, according to a document filed with the Public Utilities Commission.

Which bring us back to Pennsylvania, where Governor Corbett recently signed House Bill 2626, allowing qualifying companies that create at least 250 new jobs within five years to pocket 95% of the personal income taxes paid by the new employees.

Legislative sources told The Philadelphia Inquirer that “the bill was designed to lure California-based Oracle, the world’s third-largest software maker with $37 billion in revenue last year, to open a facility in the Penn State region, which would provide a pool of highly educated job seekers.”

We’ve already blogged about why this bill is a bad deal for Pennsylvanians, but Larry Ellison’s island provides us with yet another reason.

Oracle should not be pocketing the withholding taxes of new employees in State College, especially at a time when the state is cutting investments in schools and underfunding infrastructure.

And especially when the boss is doing well enough to afford an island in the sun.

Photo by Alamagordo under Creative Commons license.

10 Comments Recommend

10 Responses to Pennsylvania Tax Giveaways and an Island in the Sun

Phoenix Woman November 8th, 2012 at 11:54 am 1

Why not take the tax money and use it to grow Keystone State businesses?

Reply
PhilPerspective November 8th, 2012 at 3:37 pm 2

In response to Phoenix Woman @ 1

Because that would be smart, and we know GOPers aren’t very smart.

Reply
JamesJoyce November 8th, 2012 at 3:51 pm 3

At least this rich man’s paradise Isle doesn’t not have a city at a lower elevation, to flood?

http://www.theweatherchannelkids.com/weather-ed/weather-encyclopedia/flooding/historical-floods/johnstown-flood-of-1889/

The Johnstown Flood of 1889 was one of the worst disasters in United States history.

Located in a valley among the Laurel Mountains, part of the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania, Johnstown is a prime target for major floods. The Conemaugh, the Little Conemaugh, and the Stony Creek Rivers all merge to flow directly through the heart of the town.

Toward the end of the Nineteenth Century, Johnstown was a thriving community in the forefront of the new steel industry. With a population that doubled every ten years, primarily due to an influx of immigrants who came to work in the steel mills, Johnstown needed more land.

In the 1880′s, the rivers were cut in half by pouring slag from the iron furnaces of the steel mills into them, creating more land for building. By making more land space, the rivers’ channels were made narrower, which greatly increased the potential for flooding in an already flood-prone area.

Fourteen miles above Johnstown, on the Little Conemaugh River, lay the South Fork Dam. The dam was owned by the exclusive South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club, which touted on its membership rolls notable names such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick.

The dam created a three-mile long, one-mile wide, 65-foot deep lake for the club’s recreational activities. It was an earthen dam and not well-built.

Heavy rains began to fall morning of June 1st, eight inches had fallen at the South Fork Dam, and the rain was still coming down. The water from the lake at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club was only two feet from the top of the dam and continued to rise one inch every ten minutes.

To make matters worse, the river that ran directly through the city of Johnstown was already beginning to flood its banks. At approximately 3:15 in the afternoon, the South Fork Dam could no longer hold the water back from the lake. It collapsed, sending 20 million tons of water sweeping downstream toward Johnstown.

Same old corporate sodomy, just a different era…

Reply
BSbafflesbrains November 8th, 2012 at 3:57 pm 4

In response to JamesJoyce @ 3

Yeah, he and his ilk are just flooding the planet instead.

Reply
Moosecrackers November 8th, 2012 at 4:05 pm 5

Just fyi, the name of the island is Lana’i. The spelling in the article uses an “l” instead of an “i” as the last letter.

Reply
arcadesproject November 8th, 2012 at 4:08 pm 6

Corbett is just feeding the monster. These plutocrats should be required to pony up just like the rest of us and if they would rather flee than pay, let ‘em go to Bangladesh. Or wherever.

Reply
BSbafflesbrains November 8th, 2012 at 4:11 pm 7

In response to Moosecrackers @ 5

You know why he bought it don’t you. Gates owns most of Molokai. Gotta keep up with the Jones’.

Reply
CTuttle November 8th, 2012 at 4:30 pm 8

In response to BSbafflesbrains @ 7

And Oprah owns a sizable chunk of Maui…!

But, to get a real feel of what’s happening here in the Isles…

The Big Wind and the Fears of Overdevelopment on Hawaii

Most of the Neighbor Islanders,(i.e. not Oahu) are fighting tooth and nail the Big Wind and the $5 Billion undersea cable(taxpayer $$$) to Oahu…!

Reply
Twain November 8th, 2012 at 7:30 pm 9

FYI, that Oracle Headquarters is about 2 minutes from my house and across the street from what you see in the picture there are several large buildings that are also Oracle. It’s huge and actually quite beautiful. We have a small airport nearby and Mr. Oracle was furious when he couldn’t get permission to land his private jet there.

Reply
ThirdandState November 9th, 2012 at 12:07 pm 10

In response to Moosecrackers @ 5

Thanks for noting the correct spelling on the Lana’i. I fixed it in the blog post.

Reply

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